Claim: India has sent a “top secret” letter to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, requesting Islamabad to hand over former Prime Minister Imran Khan to New Delhi citing concerns over his “personal security and physical well being” and “a rising risk environment”.
Fact: The letter in question is fake. The document is doctored through or generated entirely with AI tools.
On 1 December 2025, Facebook user ‘Ajmal Khan’ posted (archive) what they claimed was a “Top Secret letter of [the] Indian Foreign Ministry leaked” on social media platforms.
According to the document, India has put forward a request to Pakistan to hand over former Prime Minister and founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, due to concerns about his “personal security and physical well being”.
It also cited “a rising risk environment” for Khan due to what it said were “internal political tensions, factional hostility, and the increasing volatility inside detention facilities”.
The body of the letter — which carries a “TOP SECRET” stamp and is addressed to Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary — is reproduced below:
“Excellency,
This communication is being conveyed through the restricted diplomatic channel in view of the sensitivity of the matter. The Government of India wishes to register a formal expression of concern regarding the personal security and physical well being of Mr Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi currently under detention in your country.
Our assessment units have received inputs suggesting a rising risk environment around Mr Khan due to internal political tensions, factional hostility and the increasing volatility inside detention facilities. While the internal decisions of the Government of Pakistan remain entirely your sovereign domain this concern is rooted in the lessons drawn from regional history including the case of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina whose safety repeatedly required exceptional protective measures during periods of political confrontation.
In light of these parallels and in the interest of regional stability, we request that the Government of Pakistan consider transferring Mr Khan temporarily to a secure location under a mutually agreed protective framework. This request is being made with full respect for your legal procedures and without any intention to interfere in the judicial process. The sole purpose is to prevent any outcome that could escalate tensions or generate irreversible consequences.
Should the Government of Pakistan find merit in exploring this proposal we remain available to discuss modalities through a discreet liaison mechanism. We trust that your esteemed office will treat this communication with the confidentiality it requires.
Please accept Excellency the assurances of our highest consideration.”
The Facebook post is accompanied by the following caption, which also includes an Urdu translation of the letter’s contents:
“بلی تھیلے سے باہر نکلی!!
[The cat is out of the bag]”
The purported document was also shared (archive) on X (formerly Twitter) by Abubakar Qassam, who describes himself as a “journalist who covered war stricken KP [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] for 15 years”. In a 1 December 2025 post, he wrote, “Breaking News: Top secret letter of the Indian Ministery (sic) of External Affairs gets leaked on Social Media. [The] Indian Government has requested Pakistan to send Imran Khan as a political prisoner to India just like Haseena Wajid.”
The claim surfaced on social media after Khan’s sisters appeared on Indian media outlets for interviews about their incarcerated brother and the political situation in Pakistan.
Interviews of Imran Khan’s sisters
Two of Imran Khan’s sisters, Aleema Khanum and Noreen Niazi, gave separate interviews to Indian media outlets — including Republic World, CNN-News18, ANI News, and India Today — in November 2025 citing repeated denials to meet their brother in the Central Jail Rawalpindi, commonly known as the Adiala jail.
According to the Indian outlets, the sisters spoke about an alleged “political turmoil in Pakistan” and discussed Khan’s health in prison, claiming that he was being held in a “death cell” and hinting at a “big protest” in the future. They also claimed that their brother was “held incommunicado for over four weeks” and said it is the “darkest time” in the country’s history, the reports added.
In December 2025, Khanum also gave interviews to British outlet Sky News and Australian channel ABC News, with journalists Yalda Hakim and Girish Sawlani as the host, respectively.
Info minister criticises Khan family
On 30 November, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar publicly assailed Khan’s sisters for “defaming” Pakistan by speaking to Indian media outlets, saying they “should be ashamed”.
“Why are these sisters crying about their brother on Indian and Afghan channels,” Tarar asked.
The reason Indian channels were providing their platforms to Khan’s sisters was because “they know that the mentality of this family and this party [the PTI] is anti-Pakistan”, he said.
However, Noreen Niazi criticised the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), saying she spoke publicly “to expose the injustice of my brother’s imprisonment and to urge the human rights organisations and judiciary to recognise the systematic denial of his legal, political, and humanitarian rights”.
Khan’s sisters and the PTI leaders have repeatedly been denied a chance to meet him in jail, triggering protests and sit-ins where, according to the party, police “violently detained” the three of them and “picked up” other leaders.
Manipulated visuals of Hakim, Khanum
Some social media users falsely claimed that Hakim had asked Khanum about the four-day war between India and Pakistan, with the latter allegedly terming Defence Forces Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir as a “very radicalised Islamist” who “yearns for war” and saying her brother was “a pure liberal”. Soch Fact Check debunked the viral video.
Shortly afterwards, some people shared a photo they claimed shows Sky News’ Hakim meeting PTI leader Sahibzada ‘Chico’ Jahangir ahead of her interview with Khanum. Others also levelled accusations that Khan’s sister was asked “pre-planned questions” and hinted that the show was “paid” for by the former premier’s party. However, we investigated the photo and proved that it was AI-generated.
False death claims
During the time the PTI leaders and Khan’s sisters were not allowed to meet him, rumours — and a fake image — circulated about the party founder’s death, only to be debunked later by Soch Fact Check.
On 2 December 2025, Khan’s third sister, Dr Uzma Khan, was finally allowed a visit at Adiala Jail, whereafter she said the PTI founder was “physically well” but “very angry” and had “no contact with anybody”, as authorities were “subjecting him to mental torture”.
The next day, she alleged in an interview with Independent Urdu that authorities were conducting a “test run” by spreading claims of Khan’s death “to see what people’s reaction would be”. She said, “If there is no reaction from the public, or if the reaction is manageable, then they might really do something to him.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check did not find any credible reports from reputable media outlets about such a leaked letter received by Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry or even that India had made such an offer.
Most importantly, the letter in question contains multiple inconsistencies. For starters, the picture is too clean and clear, with an apparent light shining on the letter from the top-left. The staple pin also looks off as it is not something commonly used to bind official “top secret” documents.
The photo in question is also the only one available online, with no other versions to be found. Interestingly, the State Emblem of India at the top has smudged portions, with missing details, which is in contrast to other parts of the image.
The letter also uses non-standard diplomatic language, such as “political tensions, factional hostility and the increasing volatility inside detention facilities”, “lessons drawn from regional history”, and “irreversible consequences”. These phrases sound informal, when, in fact, the language of such communications is typically neutral, with legal and technical words.
Furthermore, the Indian government is unlikely to explicitly mention names, especially when it is of a very high-profile prisoner of another state; it would perhaps use indirect and vague wording.
Moreover, India uses the name “Imran Khan,” not his full “Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi,” in its official government-level correspondence, as evident from a letter Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent to Khan in March 2021.
The font size and spacing are also inconsistent. The text after the first time the word “Excellency” appears has different font size and spacing and there are missing indentations and paragraph gaps.
The letter fails to mention the country of “former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina”, Bangladesh, which should have accompanied her name.
We observed that the words at the end of the second paragraph are squeezed together but the font switches back to its previous size in the third paragraph.
Moreover, there is a missing space between the third and fourth paragraphs.
We also came across missing commas in multiple places; for example, “sovereign domain this concern…”, “regional history including”, “Hasina whose”, “this proposal we remain”, and “accept Excellency the”.
Lastly, it appears unusual to write only “Joint Secretary” at the bottom-right of the letter as there would usually be a name and signature in that place and, in some cases, a seal or stamp, which are missing.
Overall, the entire text between the words “Excellency” and “Sincerely” has a very slightly different background than the rest of the document, indicating digital manipulation.
We decided to verify the origin of the image by running it through Google Reverse Image Search and checking the “About this image” tab, which identified it as being created using Google AI, citing the detection of a SynthID watermark.
We then tested the photo using Google’s SynthID Detector, which is a “verification portal to quickly and efficiently identify AI-generated content made with Google AI”.
It works by identifying the SynthID, “a state-of-the-art tool that embeds imperceptible watermarks” in AI-generated content even when it “is shared or undergoes a range of transformations”. According to Google, it covers “text, audio and video content, including content generated by our Gemini, Imagen, Lyria and Veo models”.
When asked to test the image, the SynthID Detector — which currently works in Gemini in Pakistan — said the “image was edited or generated with Google AI”.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the letter is fake.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here on Threads, and here, here, and here on Instagram.
It was also posted here on X and here on TikTok.
Conclusion: The letter shared in the claim is fake. The document is doctored through or generated entirely using AI tools.
Background image in cover photo: @ImranKhanOfficial
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