Claim: A Dawn.com article and a medical report allege that former Prime Minister Imran Khan was sexually assaulted in prison by an army official.
Fact: Both the alleged medical document and the viral screenshot of a Dawn.com news report claiming Imran Khan was sexually assaulted in custody are fabricated.
Soch Fact Check identified several inconsistencies in the images, including errors in language, formatting, and metadata analysis. Additionally, no credible local or international news outlets have reported on the alleged incident, nor were any statements issued by the PTI leadership, Khan’s legal team, or his family.
X user @Patelizm shared a screenshot (archive) of what appears to be an article from Dawn’s e-paper, titled “Leaked Medical Report Confirms Sexual Assault on Imran Khan in Custody by a Army Major.” The user captioned the post:
“🚨🚨 breaking – Imran Khan was sexually assaulted in army custody — not by enemies, but by the state itself. When power rapes justice, the nation loses its soul. @PTIofficial”
Another X user, @Manamuntu shared an alleged medical report (archive), writing, “🚨Imran Khan raped in custody confirms Pak Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi 👀”
The document in question is supposedly from the Pakistan Emirates Military Hospital in Rawalpindi and addressed to the General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army (GHQ), Rawalpindi.
Imran Khan’s political career
Former Pakistani cricketer turned politician Imran Khan won the general elections in 2018 and served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan. However, in 2022, Khan was ousted from power after a vote of no-confidence in his leadership was passed in the parliament. In August 2023, Khan was arrested from his Lahore residence after receiving a three-year prison sentence in a corruption case involving the illegal sale of state gifts. This conviction also disqualified Khan from holding political office for five years.
Khan, who was previously arrested in May 2023 in another corruption case but released on bail within days, denied any wrongdoing and claimed he had acquired the gifts legally. His arrest in August 2023 followed after over 150 legal cases were brought against him since his ousting in April 2022, many of which were linked to allegations of corruption and inciting violence during the deadly protests of 9 May 2023.
In January 2024, the former Prime Minister was sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets under the Official Secrets Act. A year later, in January 2025, Khan was sentenced to 14 years in prison in a corruption case involving the Al-Qadir Trust, making it the longest sentence he has received so far. He was also fined over £4,000, while his wife, Bushra Bibi, received a seven-year sentence and a fine. Khan has dismissed all the charges, claiming that they are politically motivated.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first checked whether Dawn.com had published such a report on 3 May but did not find any relevant article on the publication’s website. Since the viral screenshot appeared to have been taken from the mobile phone version of the website, we reviewed the Dawn.com website using a cellular device and identified several glaring inconsistencies in formatting, language, and overall presentation.
For instance, all the words in the headline of the viral screenshot are capitalised. However, Dawn’s headline style on its website does not capitalise every word, but only selected ones, such as proper nouns.
The headline also contained a major grammatical error: “Leaked Medical Report Confirms Sexual Assault on Imran Khan in Custody by a Army Major.” The correct phrasing should be “an army major.”
We analysed the viral screenshot alongside a genuine screenshot from Dawn’s website using Fake Image Detector, a tool that identifies image manipulation through techniques such as Metadata Analysis and Error Level Analysis (ELA). The results showed significantly higher ELA highlights on the viral image compared to the authentic screenshot, further indicating that the image had been altered.
Additionally, while the alleged medical document was dated 3 May 2025, it was shared on X on 2 May 2025. Soch Fact Check then also called the contact number listed on the document, but the number was “not in anyone’s use.”
We also analysed the report via the Fake Image Detector and found that the document was likely “computer-generated” or “digitally modified”.
Based on this evidence, Soch Fact Check concludes that both the purported Dawn report and the alleged medical document claiming Imran Khan was sexually assaulted in prison by an army major are fabricated.
Virality
The claim was shared here, here, here, here, here, and here on X. Archived here, here, here, here, here, and here.
It was shared here (archive) on Facebook.
On Instagram, it was shared here (archive).
Conclusion: The claim that former Prime Minister Imran Khan was sexually assaulted in custody, as alleged by a viral medical document and a screenshot of a Dawn.com report, is false. Both the document and the image were digitally manipulated. In addition, no credible sources or reputable media outlets have reported such an incident.
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Background image in cover photo: Dialogue Pakistan
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