CLAIM
DG ISPR’s video on military accountability shared in wake of firing incident at Islamabad’s Sarhad University
RATING JUSTIFICATION
The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is misleading.
To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan reviewed the viral posts and traced the clip to the original footage from September 5, 2024.
Multiple journalists and social media users shared a video on August 24, 2026, of military spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on army accountability, alongside claims of disciplinary action over the firing incident at Sarhad University. However, the statement was made on September 5, 2024, and is unrelated to the university incident.
On August 24, a scuffle broke out at the Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology’s Chattha Bakhtawar campus in Islamabad, where students were protesting against the dismissal of a senior university official and other varsity-related issues.
A video of the incident went viral on social media platforms, showing a military-uniformed individual approaching a group of protesters while accompanied by a woman said to be a university official. The individual struck one of the protesters with a stick and exchanged heated words with the group before a scuffle broke out.
Members of the crowd surrounded and appeared to assault him, after which he drew a pistol and pointed it towards them. The woman accompanying him attempted to intervene, but he raised the weapon and fired into the air.
Several police officers then approached and surrounded the individual. In another video, a senior Islamabad police official told the students that the individual had been escorted out of the university and would be dealt with strictly under the army’s disciplinary procedures.
Sources involved in the investigation later said that the individual was a security official who had been taken into custody and was facing an inquiry and disciplinary action under military law. However, no official statement had been issued by the Islamabad Police, the security forces or the university.
HOW IT STARTED
On August 24, anchorperson and journalist Gharidah Farooqi shared a video of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general discussing the Pakistan Army’s system of internal accountability with the following caption in Urdu: “On 24 August 2026, a tragic firing incident occurred at the Sarhad University campus in Islamabad. The army officer involved in the firing incident has been taken into custody under the military code of conduct, and an inquiry and disciplinary action have been initiated. The Pakistan Army believes in the process of self-accountability”
The post accumulated 348,200 views.
On the same day, journalist Murtaza Ali Shah shared the same clip with the following caption: “A serving Pakistan Army officer has been taken into military custody after videos showing him assaulting students and firing shots during a protest at Sarhad University’s Islamabad campus. Pakistan Army had ordered an inquiry and initiated disciplinary proceedings, with action expected if the officer is found to have violated military rules.”
The post accumulated 14,400 views.
Journalist Naveed Satti shared the same clip with a caption in Urdu that said: “The Pakistan Army believes in the process of self-accountability. In the Pakistan Army, a strict and transparent process of self-accountability exists in accordance with its tradition, and this process is carried out completely without any discrimination”
The post accumulated 16,300 views.
Another account, which appears to be pro-military based on its past posts, shared the clip with a similar Urdu caption announcing the initiation of an inquiry and disciplinary action against the officer.
The post accumulated 37,700 views.
A second account, which also appears to be pro-military based on its past posts, shared the footage with a similar Urdu caption stating that the officer had been taken into custody and that an inquiry and disciplinary proceedings had been initiated.
The post accumulated 116,500 views.
Pashto-language news channel Khyber News also shared the video with an Urdu caption stating that the Pakistan Army had taken serious notice of the incident, detained the officer and initiated an inquiry and formal disciplinary proceedings.
The post accumulated 43,000 views.
Several other X accounts also shared the clip with similar claims, as can be seen here, here, here, here and here.
None of the posts offered further details on the video, or when and where it was from, and nor did they outright say that it was the military spokesperson’s statement on the university incident.
METHODOLOGY
A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in the firing incident.
A keyword search yielded no news reports from credible national media outlets about the military spokesperson issuing any statement or video message concerning the university incident. Similarly, nothing was found on the ISPR website as well.
A reverse image search using keyframes from the viral clip to trace its origin yielded the same footage of the DG ISPR from September 5, 2024.
A comparison confirmed that the viral clip and the original footage featured the same speaker, setting and remarks about the Pakistan Army’s internal accountability process.
The clip was taken from the DG ISPR’s September 5, 2024 press conference, uploaded to the ISPR’s official YouTube channel. The remarks can be heard between the 6:45 and 7:20-minute marks.
The press conference was held in Rawalpindi and focused, among other issues, on court-martial proceedings against former intelligence chief retired Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed. The DG ISPR cited Hameed’s case while explaining the Pakistan Army’s internal accountability process, saying the proceedings had been initiated following a detailed inquiry based on “concrete evidence”, as covered by media outlets such as Dawn, Express Tribune and more.
FACT-CHECK STATUS: MISLEADING
The claim that a viral video shows the DG ISPR addressing the issue of disciplinary action in the military following the Sarhad University firing incident is misleading.
The video is from September 2024, when he was talking on the topic as he announced the initiation of court-martial proceedings against Gen Hameed.
EVIDENCE AND REFERENCES
September 5, 2024, DG ISPR YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/oO2pq5fEIWc?t=405
September 5, 2024, Dawn news report:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1857094
September 5, 2024, Express Tribune news report: