Video does not show a protest against Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa

Claim: A video on social media shows a protest in Pakistan against Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Essa over the decision to ban PTI from carrying the bat symbol.

Fact: The claim is false because the video is not from Pakistan. The clip was taken in Udaipur, India when protests erupted across Rajasthan after the killing of social activist Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi in December 2023.

On 15 January 2024, an X (formerly Twitter) user posted a video (archived) with an Urdu caption,

عمران خان زندہ باد قاضی فاٸز عیسی مردہ باد عوام نے سڑکوں پر اپنی عدالت لگا کر فیصلہ سنا دیا۔ قاضی فاٸز عیسی مردہ باد ہے۔یہ فیصلے ہم نہیں مانتے۔

[Long live Imran Khan, death to Qazi Faiz Essa. The people set up their court on the streets and pronounced the verdict. May Qazi Faez Isa be dead. We do not accept these decisions.]

The 33-second-long video shows people in large numbers marching down a street and chanting slogans.

The controversy arose after a bench, including Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to forbid Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from using its ‘cricket bat’ electoral symbol in the general election on February 8, 2024. According to Reuters, the ruling came after the PTI failed to hold internal party elections which prompted the Supreme Court’s subsequent endorsement. The decision means that PTI ticket holders will have to run as independents in the elections.

Fact or Fiction?

To investigate, Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse-image search on the keyframes of the video. The results on Google led to a news article published by an Indian outlet KP News 24×7 on 6 December 2023, with the title, “Rajasthan: Rajput Leader’s Murder Sparks Statewide Protests”. The article contains a screengrab from the viral clip.

Indian outlet article from December 2023

According to a news article, Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi – a social activist and president of the right-wing organisation, Karni Sena which works for the Rajput community in Rajasthan India –  was shot dead at his home in Jaipur which led to widespread protests within the Rajput community across Rajasthan’s states, including Jodhpur and Udaipur.

On closer inspection, chants of “Karni Sena zindabad” can be heard in the background of the video too.

On the website of All India Media Association, a screenshot of the same video was published on 6 December 2023. When translated from Hindi into English, the caption of the image reads, “Today on 6th December Udaipur is silent. In the memory of Gogamedi, the city was shut down and transport was closed” further confirming that the video shows the protest in Udaipur against Gogamedi’s killing.

Furthermore, Soch Fact Check geolocated the video and found that it shows Bapu Bazar in Udaipur, India. Google Street view of the location can be seen below:

Virality

On X, the video received 115,700 views, 7,400 likes and 3,700 reposts. The archived versions can be seen here, and here.

The same claim was also shared on Facebook and the archived versions can be seen here and here.

Conclusion: A video falsely claims to show people protesting against the Supreme Court’s decision to ban the PTI’s electoral symbol. The video is actually from India, and shows a protest against the killing of Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi.

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Background image in cover photo: Dawn

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