Claim: A video shows Pakistan’s Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal ripping an Israeli flag.
Fact: This video does not show Iqbal tearing the Israeli flag. Instead, it depicts a Kyrgyz politician ripping the flag in 2014.
On 14 September, an X user posted a photo that apparently showed Pakistan’s Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal tearing an Israeli flag.
The description of the post, when translated into English from Urdu, reads: “Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal expresses hatred for oppression by tearing the Israeli flag…”
Pakistan slams Israel at the United Nations
During a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on 11 September, Pakistan condemned Israel’s recent missile attack on Qatar, which targeted the Hamas leadership. Algeria, Pakistan, and Somalia had requested the emergency UNSC session, which was convened under the agenda item ‘Situation in the Middle East’.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said at the meeting that “the brazen and illegal assault is not an isolated incident, rather it is part of a broader and consistent pattern of aggression and violation of international law by Israel that undermines regional peace and stability.”
Israel said that the attack in Doha on 9 September was meant to target Hamas leaders involved in securing a ceasefire in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported
Doha condemned the attack inside its territory, and several countries joined in deploring the flagrant violation of Qatar’s sovereignty by Israel.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also condemned the Israeli attack and reiterated Pakistan’s support for Qatar.
Amid the growing international condemnation of Israel for breaching Qatar’s sovereignty, the post in the claim likely suggests that Ahsan Iqbal is among the Pakistani politicians who also condemned Israel by tearing its flag.
Fact or Fiction?
When the claim began circulating online, an X user “@Natsecjeff” pointed out that the video (archive) was old, that it did not depict Ahsan Iqbal, and in fact showed “Tursunbai Bakir-Uulu, a Kyrgyz lawmaker,” tearing up the Israeli flag in 2014.
This user also shared a screenshot of what appeared to be an original video, featuring a clearer picture of this lawmaker.
Taking cues from this, Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video and found the original clip by Ozodlik, an Uzbek radio service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), from 2014, featured in the screenshot shared by the X user. The title of the footage, when translated into English via Google Translate, states: “MP Bakir Ukli tears up Israeli flag”.
The description of the clip further reads [translated into English]: “Kyrgyz parliament member Tursunboy Bakir oglu tears up an Israeli flag at a press conference in Bishkek. Video uploaded to the Kyrgyz service of RFE/RL: bulbul.kg”.
The visual comparison of the video from the claim with the original clip from 2014, shown below, confirms that the person who is ripping the Israeli flag is not Ahsan Iqbal. The individual in the video published by Ozodlik is clearly someone else.
On the left is the screenshot from the video in the claim. On the right is the original video, which features a Kyrgyz politician.
A BBC article from August 2014 titled [translated into English], “Why did a Kyrgyz representative tear the Israeli flag?” also carries an image of Tursunboy Bakir Oglu, a Kyrgyz politician, tearing the Israeli flag. This picture also matches the scene from the original video above, confirming that the incident is old and does not show Ahsan Iqbal.
Soch Fact Check thus concludes that the video circulating online does not show Ahsan Iqbal ripping the Israeli flag.
Virality
The X post garnered 96,600 views and was liked 3,600 times.
It also appeared on X here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram, it appeared here, here, here, and here.
And on Facebook here.
Conclusion: The video in the claim does not show Pakistan’s Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, tearing the Israeli flag. Instead, it depicts a Kyrgyz politician ripping the flag in 2014.
Background image in cover photo: Media Today
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