Claim: A video shows Imran Khan in hospital after being attacked by an inmate in prison.
Fact: The video is from 2013 and shows Khan being discharged from hospital after he fell from a forklift during a rally in Lahore.
On 26 May 2025, a user on Facebook posted a video that allegedly showed former Prime Minister Imran Khan in hospital after being attacked by a prison inmate. The caption of the post reads as follows in Urdu:
سابق وزیر اعظم عمران خان پر جیل میں ایک قیدی نے حملہ کیا 😭”
اللہ تعالیٰ میرے کپتان کو لمبی زندگی اور اپنی نیک مقاصد میں
“کامیابی عطا فرمائے، میرے کپتان نے اس قوم کی خاطر بڑے تکالیف برداشت کیے اور کررہے ہیں!!! 😢
It translates to English as:
“😭Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was attacked by a prisoner in the jail
May Allah bless my captain with long life and good intentions
😢Bless me with success, my captain has suffered and is doing great for this nation!!!”
Khan remains imprisoned since August 2023 due to a slew of cases accusing him of harboring undeclared assets, breaching state secrets, contracting an allegedly unlawful marriage, and financial fraud, among others.
Fact or Fiction?
Through a reverse-image search of the video’s keyframes, we attempted to find out if it actually showed Khan in the hospital after a prison inmate attacked him. The search yielded two results from TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), both dated May 2025. The posts included the same video but with an embedded caption at the top of the frame that read “22 May 2013”.
Since, the reverse-image search did not lead to a relevant video from 2013, we conducted a Google search for “Imran Khan hospital 2013”. This led us to news articles dated 22 May 2013 by The Guardian, BBC, and Dawn that either included the video in the claim or stills that matched it.
According to The Guardian and the BBC, the video shows Khan being discharged from Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Lahore. He was admitted after he fell from a forklift during a rally in the city on 7 May 2013 and fractured three vertebrae in his back and a rib, The Guardian reported. He was then discharged two weeks later, “fitted with a spinal brace to aid his recovery”.
Among the search results, we also came across the video on Khan’s official Facebook page. While the video’s caption did not specify the reason Khan was admitted, it was also posted on 22 May 2013, the same date as the above-mentioned news articles. The post added that Khan “will need to wear a spinal support for some weeks to come”, indicating that he had suffered injury to his back.
We also conducted a Google search for “Imran Khan attack jail inmate” but came across no news reports claiming that the former premier had been attacked in jail. Similar claims of the PTI founder being assaulted in prison were previously debunked by Soch Fact Check.
Hence, the video of Khan being discharged from hospital in 2013 is circulating with a false claim. It does not show him after a recent attack on him by a prison inmate.
Virality
On Facebook, the claim was shared here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram, the claim was shared here.
Conclusion: The video shows former Prime Minister Imran Khan being discharged from hospital in 2013 after he fell from a forklift during a rally in Lahore.
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Background image in cover photo: Al Majalla
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