Fact-check: Is the video of the petrol bomb old?

A video circulating on Pakistani social media purportedly shows a Molotov cocktail being tossed from inside former prime minister Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore at a police armoured vehicle on March 15.

Online users and politicians belonging to Khan’s political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), have contested the video claiming it is fake.

Their claim is false.

Claim

On March 16, Fayaz ul Hassan Chohan, a member of the PTI, posted a short clip which shows a man throwing a bottle, containing a flammable substance, at the police in Lahore.

The clip was labelled “fake” and alleged that the video was in fact recorded during a security operation near the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) in Islamabad in 2007.

The tweet had received over 8,274 retweets and 12,600 likes, at the time of writing. While the video alone has been viewed over 154,000 times.

On March 16, another Twitter handle posted the same video with the caption: “A lie cannot be hidden for long. Since yesterday, journalists and the entire PDM have been linking this video to Zaman Park.”

Fact

Three senior police officials confirmed to Geo Fact Check that the video was indeed recorded on March 15, when a man threw a petrol bomb at a police car from inside Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore, Punjab.

“This is the recent Zaman Park incident,” Imran Kishwar, the senior superintendent of police discipline in Lahore, who is also the focal person, told Geo Fact Check via WhatsApp.

Zaman Park is the area in Lahore where Khan’s family home is located, and where on March 14 and 15 the police clashed with his supporters.

Separately, an official at the Lahore police headquarters, who asked not to be named, told Geo Fact Check that the police armoured vehicle, which can be seen in the video, was sent by the Lahore Security Division on March 15.

The Lahore Security Division is a department of the police, responsible for the security of the prime minister of Pakistan, the chief minister’s offices, the secretariat and their residences in Lahore.

In fact, the official added that two armoured vehicles were sent by the Division on the day to assist the police as they came under attack by political workers outside Khan’s home.

The number plate of one vehicle was CH 2620 and the other was LHO 442, the officer at the Headquarters said. The first vehicle (CH 2620) can be seen coming under attack by a Molotov cocktail in the video being shared online.

Geo Fact Check then contacted the Lahore Security Division, where a senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, also confirmed that the vehicle seen in the video was indeed sent by them on March 15.

“We sent two cars to the Operation Wing [of the Lahore police],” the senior official said, “The vehicle seen in the video is ours and a petrol bomb was thrown at it. This is definitely Zaman Park, there should be no doubt about it.”

With additional reporting by Nadia Khalid.

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