Claim: A video shows Salman Akram Raja arrested by the police after Eid prayers.
Fact: The video shows police arresting Raja on 17 February 2024 after the PTI had staged protests alleging rigging in the 2024 general elections.
On 31 March 2025, a post on Facebook shared a video, claiming it showed police arresting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Secretary General Salman Akram Raja after Eid prayers. The caption of the post reads as follows in Urdu:
“پاکستانی اسرائیل نے سلمان اکرم راجہ کو عید نماز کے بعد گرفتار کرلیا“
It reads as follows in English:
“Pakistani Israel Arrested Salman Akram Raja After Eid Prayer”
The post’s caption does not specify the year this video was shot. However, because Eid recently passed between 31 March–2 April 2025, we assume it refers to this year’s Eid-ul-fitr prayers.
Fact or Fiction?
A reverse-image search of the video’s keyframes was conducted to verify if the video actually showed Raja being arrested after this year’s Eid prayers. The search showed results of news articles from Aaj News, The Friday Times, and Pakistan Today from February 2024, and the articles included keyframes of the video in the claim. According to these articles, Raja was arrested by the police in Lahore on 17 February 2024, the day the PTI protested alleging rigging in the general elections held on 8 February 2024.
We also came across the same video on YouTube, posted by Dawn News English on 17 February 2024, the title of which said that it shows Raja being arrested by the police in Lahore.
Conducting a Google search for “Salman Akram Raja arrest February 2024”, we came across the video in the claim posted on X by PTI’s official account. Part of the caption read as follows:
“Senior Supreme Court Lawyer Salman Akram Raja Arrested in Lahore while protesting against election rigging.”
Articles in Dawn, The Express Tribune, and The Nation also corroborated this and, along with Pakistan Today, stated that Raja was later released on the same day. The Express Tribune article included a post on X, dated 17 February 2024, by Raja himself stating that he has been freed. However, it is not accessible as the account has since been suspended.
Hence, the video in the claim does not show Raja being arrested after Eid prayers this year. The video is actually from last year, when he was arrested by the police for protesting against alleged rigging in the elections of 8 February 2024.
Virality
On Facebook, the video in the claim has garnered 531 K plays and was also shared here.
Conclusion: The claim is misleading. The video does not show Salman Akram Raja being arrested this year after Eid prayers. Rather, it shows his arrest last year on 17 February, when the PTI had staged protests alleging rigging in the general elections of 8 February 2024.
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Background image in cover photo: Dunya News