Video of PTI workers swimming across river is old from September 2023, unrelated to current protests

The iVerify Pakistan team has investigated this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan critically analysed the video and conducted a keyword search to trace the original video.

Posts from multiple users on various social media platforms since November 25, 2024, widely shared a video, claiming it showed PTI workers swimming across a river to bypass road blockades and other barriers to reach Islamabad for the party’s protest. However, the video is old from September 2023 and is unrelated to the current PTI protest.

On Nov 13, PTI founder Imran Khan issued a “final call” for nationwide protests on Nov 24 (Sunday), denouncing what he described as the stolen mandate, the unjust arrests of people, and the passage of the 26th amendment, which he said strengthened a “dictatorial regime”.

Protesters have currently entered Islamabad where tensions are running high as the army has been deployed to deal with miscreants. A pitched battle erupted at Chungi No 26 — on the outskirts of the capital — on the night of Nov 25 between police and PTI protesters after an advance team of the party’s caravan reached the area.

HOW IT STARTED

On November 25, 2024, Journalist Wajahat Saeed Khan shared a post on X showing many people swimming in a river while carrying PTI flags.

The caption of the post said, “Not since Partition, perhaps not ever in Pakistan’s history, has a group of people mobilised for a political cause in this way. This is next level.”

The post was seen by more than 328,000 people.

The same video with a similar caption was shared by a PML-N supporter on X who according to his X bio is a Former Chairman of Municipal Committee, Bahawalnagar.

The post was seen by more than 370,000 people.

A local media outlet Dialogue Pakistan also posted a video on Instagram, showing many people swimming in a river while carrying PTI flags.

The video was overlaid with text that read: “PTI workers swim across river amid road blockades to reach Islamabad.”

The post was captioned: “Islamabad: In an effort to reach Islamabad for a planned protest, workers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) were seen swimming across a river, bypassing road blockades and other barriers.”

The post gained over 4,000 likes.

The same video was posted by media outlet Mega News with a similar caption, gaining 819 likes.

The video was widely shared across different social media platforms such as X here and here, and on YouTube here, here, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to verify the authenticity of the claim due to its wide spread across multiple social media platforms, the public’s keen interest in the ongoing PTI protest and because multiple digital media outlets had also shared the video.

To investigate the viral video, a Google reverse image search was conducted to determine whether the footage was recent or old. However, the search yielded no results. iVerify Pakistan also reached out to Dialogue Pakistan regarding the video.

Upon critically analysing the video clip shared by Mega News, it was observed that the footage included a watermark of “Abaseen Rang” near the start of the video.

A keyword search for “Abaseen Rang” led to a Facebook page of the same name. Reviewing the page’s videos yielded a video posted on September 2, 2023, titled, “A unique rally unlike anything ever witnessed in history.”

A comparison of the viral video with the older footage revealed the same key visuals. At the 1:45 timestamp of the older video, an elderly bearded man can be seen floating in the river on what appears to be an inflated tyre.

He is wearing a PTI cap and holding two PTI flags in his left hand. The same individual appears in the viral clip.

At the 1:55 timestamp, a man is visible holding a PTI flag in his right hand, while another person in the background also holds a PTI flag.

The above findings confirm that the viral video is the same as the one originally uploaded in September 2023.

Further investigation uncovered another video from September 1, 2023, titled, “You must have seen many rallies, but you’ve probably never seen a rally in a river. Well, today, witness that too.”

A person can be heard speaking in Pashto in the video.

To understand the context, Dawn reporter Zahid Imdad was contacted for translation. According to Zahid, the speaker in the video was conducting a drug awareness activity in the Swabi area. The individual highlighted the increasing consumption of crystal meth, commonly referred to as “ice”, in the region.

The reporter said the activity was conducted under the PTI flag as the participants were party supporters, adding that the speaker also made political statements demanding Imran’s release and calling for relief from rising inflation.

Imdad identified the river as the Indus River, known in Pashto as the Abaseen River.

The Facebook page told iVerify Pakistan that it was an annual summer activity conducted by the PTI leadership to provide an avenue for entertainment for the youth.

“This rally was actually a swimming competition for village dwellers. They were given an area in the river where all the youth had to compete in swimming and the one who wins gets a trophy. Tthe area is almost in PTI leadership that’s why you can see people having flags of PTI swimming in the river as they were to greet the upcoming rally of competitors and also to enjoy the swimming in cold water of summer,” the page said.

It said the event was held near Beka village in Swabi district’s Tordher town.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim regarding a viral video of PTI protesters swimming across a river to bypass obstacles and reach Islamabad is false.

The video is old from September 2023 and is unrelated to the current PTI protest.