Tribune Fact Check: Viral video of witness in Zardari fake accounts case getting shot?

The Express Tribune found the claim to be false as the footage is from a 2018 television drama

KARACHI: Viral footage has surfaced on Twitter and Facebook claiming to show  a man who was expected to testify against former president Asif Ali Zardari being shot on a street.



The Express Tribune analysed the claim and found it to be false and the video is part of a scene filmed for a 2018 television drama.

The video was published here on Facebook on May 8. It was viewed more than 638,000 times and shared on 18,300 occasions.

In the 24-second long footage, a shackled man is being escorted out of a building before he is suddenly shot at multiple times.

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He then falls to the ground before men clad in the Sindh Police uniform carry him away in a vehicle.

The post’s Urdu-language caption says: “Heard that this man was going to testify against Asif Ali Zardari. How cleverly he has been removed from the way. What role for police has been left in this matter now?”

The video was shared here on Facebook; and here on Twitter with a similar claim.

سُنا ہے یہ بندہ آصف علی زرداری کے خلاف گواہی دینے جا رہا تھا..کتنی صفائی سے رستے سے ہٹا دیا گیا.. پولیس کا کیا رول بچتا ہے اس معاملے میں اب. pic.twitter.com/h5W6CZ537i

— Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf Jhang (@TehreekInsaf12) May 9, 2020

The video, however, was actually filmed for a Pakistani television drama.

SCREENGRAB: TWITTER

We found this video on Twitter showing the actor joking to a cameraman when asked,"How do you feel after getting shot?"

To which he replies with a smirk "not too bad to be honest".

pic.twitter.com/zOWALwFd41

— G.M.Mustafa (@gmmustafa73) May 9, 2020

A voice in the video says: “He is the gentleman who was hit by a bullet, but he is standing alive.The bullet does not do any harm to him".

SCREENGRAB: YOUTUBE

We also found comments on the misleading Facebook post which suggested the video was a scene filmed for the 2018  drama Haara Dil.

A clip published on the YouTube channel of A Plus Entertainment, which appears to show the broadcast version of the same scene.

https://youtu.be/vIlfcH0HiWc?t=222

The video, dated September 13, 2018, is titled: “Haara Dil - Episode 23.

At the three-minute 46-second mark of the video, the actor can be seen in the same shooting scene.