Morphed image of Pakistani politician shared in India

by Kinjal

An image of a person sitting in a flight with a bottle of liquor on the table next to him is circulating on social media. On September 26, Twitter user Manjeet Bagga posted the image and claimed, “Proper use of Zakat money”. At the time of writing this article, the tweet was retweeted more than 4,500 times. Zakat is an Islamic term denoting money kept aside for charitable causes. The Quran in several verses admonishes the consumption of liquor.

Journalist and editor-in-chief of Gulf Connoisseur Meena Das Narayan retweeted Bagga’s tweet. It may be noted that Narayan has been found circulating misinformation on several occasions.

The image is viral on both Facebook and Twitter with the same claim.

Fact-check

With a reverse image search, we found a Facebook post from August 2019. The image posted by the page ‘Jamiat Talba Islam Bajaur’ does not have a liquor bottle placed on the table. The man in the image is Pakistani politician Fazal-ur-Rehman. He is the president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), a Pakistani political party.

The picture shared on social media is quite evidently photoshopped.

About the Author

Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.