Old photos of ex-Pak PM Imran Khan linked to recent assassination attempt

Hyderabad: Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday sustained a bullet injury on his leg after an armed attack during a protest march in Wazirabad, Pakistan. His party described the incident as an "assassination attempt."

Following the incident, media outlets and social media users are sharing two photos of Imran Khan and claiming that they are the first photos of the former PM after the attack.

News24 shared the two photos and claimed they are the first pictures of the injured Imran Khan.

Several other media houses have deleted the posts after sharing them. An archive of the post by NDTV and British broadcaster Piers Morgan can be seen here and here.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the photos are old and are not related to the recent assassination attempt on the former Pakistan Prime Minister.

Photo 1

On conducting a reverse image search of the first photo, we found it was used in an article published by Pakistani Such TV on 7 May 2013. It said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had fallen off a lifter which was raising him to the top of a stage during an election rally.

We also found a video report on the incident published on 7 May 2013 by Al Jazeera English titled "Imran Khan falls from rally stage in Pakistan."

Photo 2

On conducting a reverse image search of the second photo, we found it was earlier posted on Khan's official Twitter account on 17 August 2014. It was captioned "Night at the dharna."

The photo is from a 2014 dharna when Imran Khan was holding countrywide sit-in protests demanding the resignation of the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif.

It is evident that the two photos are old and not related to the recent attack on Imran Khan. Hence, the claim is misleading.