Footage of Pakistan police protesting in the wake of deadly militant attacks has surfaced in social media posts falsely claiming it shows a demonstration for the release of politician Sher Afzal Marwat. Considered one of the leaders of Pakistan’s opposition party, he was detained after a rally on September 8. However, the protest was linked to police killings in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The tribe of Sher Afzal Khan Marwat started a protest in Lakki Marwat against the arrest of Afzal Khan Marwat,” read an Urdu language X post from September 9.
The post, shared 10,000 times, shows a video of crowds of people gathered.
Marwat, a lawmaker from the party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, was arrested on September 9, a day after a major rally in the capital Islamabad (archived link).
He and nine other MPs from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party were charged under a new protest law and the anti-terrorism act.
The anti-terrorism court granted them bail of 30,000 rupees ($100).
They were accused of violating the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act, passed just days before the rally was held, in a move rights groups say was an attempt to curb freedom of expression and peaceful protest.
PTI has faced a sweeping crackdown since Khan was jailed in August last year on a series of charges he says are politically motivated and designed to keep him from power.
The video circulated in similar posts from Facebook and X accounts that expressed support for Imran Khan.
Police killings
A reverse image search of the video found it was previously published in a news report about a police protest following militant attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The clip was posted by local news channel Aaj TV in a YouTube video on September 10 titled: “Lakki Marwat police stage sit in over terror attacks” (archived link).
Hundreds of police officials held a demonstration the previous day in the city of Lakki Marwat in the wake of two militant attacks that killed three policemen.
The protesters, who were mostly dressed as civilians, demanded the withdrawal of security forces in the district and beefed up powers for local police to deal with militant threats in the area (archived link).
Aaj News reporter Anwar Zaman, who was present at the scene, confirmed it was linked to police killings.
“The police were protesting for their rights not because of Sher Afzal Marwat,” he told AFP.
He provided AFP with footage that he filmed at the demonstration, which shows the same people seen in the video falsely shared online.
A senior police official also told AFP that the protest was linked to police killings by militants.
