Claim: An image shows the victims of the recent kidnapping and sexual assault case reported in Lahore, which involved Muhammad Raza Dar, a relative of Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar.
Fact: This claim is false. As the image being circulated is AI-generated, and is not of the two foreign nationals from the Lahore case,
On 6 July 2024, Facebook user, Voice of Punjab posted an image with the following caption:
سی سی ڈی پنجاب کے “
اپنے نیفے میں رضا ڈار چل گیا
امیر کے لئے الگ قانون غریب کے لئے الگ ، پاکستان کی تاریخ گواہ ہے کہ جب بھی کوئی ادارہ سہی کام کرنے لگتا ہے اور عوام کا اعتماد اس ادارے پر ہونے لگتا ہے تو عین اسی وقت کسی سیاسی خاندان کے سپوت سے کرائم سرزد ہو جاتا ہے اور وہی ادارہ جو غریب غبارہ بیچنے والے ، سکنجبین والے ، کریانے کی دوکان پر کام کرنے والے ملازم کو فل فرائی یا ہاف فرائی کر دیتے تھے وہ سیاسی خاندان کے چشم و چراغ کو بچانے میں لگ جاتے ہیں اور پھر ادارے کی ساکھ خراب ہو جاتی ہے
امیر کے لئے علیحدہ قانون اور غریب کے لئے علیحدہ یہ پاکستان کی ریت ہے
تحریر : حارث کھوکھ
[Translation: “Raza Dar—a scion of a political family—has run amok. There is one law for the rich and another for the poor; Pakistan’s history bears witness that whenever an institution begins to function correctly and gains public trust, a crime is committed by a member of a political family at that very moment. The same institutions that would ruthlessly crack down on poor balloon sellers, lemonade vendors, or grocery store clerks suddenly busy themselves with shielding the scion of that political family, ultimately tarnishing the institution’s reputation.
Separate laws for the rich and the poor—such is the norm in Pakistan.
Written by: Haris Khokhar”]
Screenshot of the Facebook post being fact-checked
Kidnapping case of two foreign women in Lahore
On 2 July, the Lahore police registered a case against five people suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two foreign women. The FIR available with Soch Fact Check lists section 365A (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc) and 375A (gang rape). It mentioned a man named Muhammad Raza Dar, another person the women referred to as his “boss”, and three other men.
A copy of the FIR obtained by Soch Fact Check
The FIR stated that the two women named Stephanie and Astrid, a Dutch and a Venezuelan national respectively, first met Dar in Singapore in October 2025. According to Stephanie’s statement cited in a report by Dawn, he invited them to Pakistan and arranged their visas under the pretence of introducing them to new investors for her company. Soch Fact Check also obtained her original statement to the judicial magistrate in which she stated that she and Astrid arrived in Islamabad on 26 June and spent three days at a hotel.
An excerpt from Stephanie’s statement to the judicial magistrate on 2 July 2026
An excerpt from Stephanie’s statement to the judicial magistrate on 2 July 2026
In her statement, Stephanie added that they travelled to Lahore with Dar on 29 June 2026 where he lured them into a house under the pretext of celebrating a relative’s birthday. However, they found the residence empty. She added that within fifteen minutes, four armed men stormed inside and tied up both the women, after which they demanded high amounts of ransom. She stated that Dar initially pretended to be a victim too but later his complicity with the armed men had become evident.
According to the Dawn report, she accused the kidnappers of demanding $2 million and electronically transferring $17,000 in cryptocurrency from her accounts. She also detailed an account of sexual assault that took place on 30 June which was confirmed by medical reports issued on 6 July after the DNA of three of the suspects matched.
DIG Lahore Muhammad Faisal Kamran said in a press briefing that the FIR was registered after a man named Carlos, the father of one of the women, called the emergency helpline “15” from Spain and alerted the Defence assistant superintendent of police (ASP) about the situation.
Kamran added that the victims were rescued after the car transporting them to another location crashed into another vehicle which gave them the opportunity to escape and seek shelter in a shop near Bhatta Chowk. After being rescued, they departed from the country on 3 July, he added.
DIG Kamran also confirmed that when his team was trying to trace the suspects, they spoke to a few people living in the raided houses who informed them that the place was previously rented out by the relatives of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. A police official then identified one of the suspects as Muhammad Raza Dar after confirming the information from his family.
Dawn quoted police officials investigating the case claiming that a total of eight suspects have been arrested in the case, including someone the victims referred to as the “boss” who was providing instructions to the other men via a phone call, as described in the FIR.
On 3 July, the judicial magistrate at Cantt Courts in Lahore issued a remand order, a copy of which is available with Soch Fact Check, that approved a five-day physical remand for Ahmad Raza, Sikandar Aziz Khan, Hassan Raza and Sajid Ali. Later, on 13 July, the court extended their remand by four more days.
Remand order approved by the judicial magistrate in Cantt Court on 3 July
On 5 July 2026, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah appeared on Geo News’ show ‘Naya Pakistan’ and stated that Deputy PM Ishaq Dar is being dragged in this matter “unnecessarily.”
“A non-issue is being turned into an issue. This matter is being stretched from left and right to create an effect for him [Ishaq Dar]. Even if his [Dar’s] relative is involved, no matter how close they are, he [Dar] is not responsible for his [Raza] words and actions,” Sanaullah stated.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check obtained the official statements of the two victims from a crime reporter based in Lahore. The statements were given on 2 July 2026 to the Punjab Police. Soch Fact Check has redacted pictures of the victims to maintain their privacy. However, on comparison, the images from these official documents do not match the image circulating in the claim at all.
Page 1 of the sworn statement given by one of the victims, a Spanish national named Astrid Gabriela Robinson Bracho. The statement includes her authentic picture
As seen, Astrid’s face does not match the faces of either of the women in the image being fact-checked. The image of the second victim, Stephanie Adriana Mau Asam, provided in the copy of her sworn statement does not match the image in the claim either.
Seeing that neither of the victims’ original pictures from their recorded statements matched the image in the claim, Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse-image search to find the latter’s source and origins. The results do not link back to the original images, and since the image could not be traced back to an original source, we suspected it may be AI-generated.
Page 1 of the sworn statement given by one of the victims, a Dutch national named Stephanie Adriana Mau Asam. The statement includes her authentic picture
Results from AI-Detection Tools
First, we ran the image through Hive Moderation’s AI-Generated Content Detection tool, used specifically for the photo with the two women that was cropped from the post when running it through these tools. The tool analyses visual patterns, textures, lighting, and facial features amongst other characteristics and provides a probable source for the image and videos while checking if it’s AI.
According to the tool’s results, the image is 82.3% likely to be AI-generated, and 97.9% likely to be a deepfake. In the breakdown of generation sources, Qwen, which generates AI images based on the prompts given by the creator, was identified as one of the top sources.
Results given by Hive Moderation for the image
According to Google DeepMind, SynthID embeds digital watermarks directly into AI-generated images, audio, text, and video. The watermarks are embedded across Google’s generative AI consumer products, and are imperceptible to humans but can be detected by SynthID’s technology.Soch Fact Check then ran the image through OpenAI’s tool designed to check if it was created using the American company’s artificial intelligence tools. The results confirmed that a SynthID watermark originating from OpenAI was found in the image, proving that an existing picture has been manipulated or has been modified using AI.
OpenAI identified the presence of a SynthID watermark in the image
Based on official records and results from AI detection tools, we conclude that the image in the claim does not show the two victims of sexual assault and kidnapping case involving Raza Dar. It is, in fact, AI-generated.
Virality
This viral image was shared on Facebook and saw interaction in thousands, ranging from 4.2K to 1.3k likes.
On Instagram one reel gained 229 likes and 17 comments.
Posts on X also received thousands of views, with the most popular ones receiving 28.8K views, 18.5K views, 6.1K views, and 1.9K views, respectively.
Conclusion: The image in the claim does not two women who were victims in the sexual assault and kidnapping case involving Raza Dar. It is, in fact, AI-generated.
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com