A series of old photos of a man in Pakistan who stripped in public has resurfaced in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed a rickshaw driver who took off his clothes after getting an “inflated electricity bill” in July 2024.

The photos circulated amid growing concern within the country about the affordability of electricity and as the government approved a hike in prices.

The photos have in fact circulated since 2017 in reports about a man who removed his clothes to break up a protest that was blocking traffic.

“The poor rickshaw driver stripped in public when he got an inflated electricity bill,” read part of the Urdu-language caption to photos shared on X on July 4, 2024.

The images, which were shared more than 800 times, appear to show a man taking off his clothes in the middle of a busy road.

The caption went on to blame the rise in electricity bills on the military’s backing of “regime change” – alluding to former prime minister Imran Khan’s accusation that he forced from office in April 2022 by a conspiracy involving his opponents and the United States. Washington vehemently denies the accusation.

The photos were also shared elsewhere on X here and here and on Facebook here and here alongside similar claims.

They circulated amid growing concern within Pakistan about the affordability of electricity, with The Express Tribune newspaper reporting that residents in Karachi were taking to social media to voice their frustrations (archived link).

It also reported that traders staged nationwide protests against a government decision to increase taxes and electricity prices in the upcoming fiscal year (archived link).

The photos, however, are unrelated to the rising cost of electricity, and circulated online almost seven years earlier.

‘One weird trick’ A reverse image search on Google led to an article using the same three photos, published by the news website Daily Pakistan on December 25, 2017 (archived link).

The article, titled “Naked man from Faislabad (sic) teaches Pakistanis how to stop protests with this one weird trick”, says the man “shooed off dozens of protesters by stripping off all his clothes on a busy square in Faisalabad city of Punjab”.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the images used in the false post (left) and the photos used by Daily Pakistan (right):

The Daily Pakistan said the incident took place at the City Council Chowk and demonstrators there were protesting against local authorities.

It did not elaborate on what the protest was about.

Pakistani news blog Parhlo also used the same photos in a report published on December 26, 2017 (archived link).

It said the protest was over “deaths that had taken place in the area recently”, and had occurred on the outskirts of Faisalabad and blocked one of the city’s most important roads.

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AFP was unable to pinpoint the exact location where these photos were taken, but visual clues such as rickshaws in the background and bystanders wearing traditional shalwar kameez outfits suggest the images were captured in Pakistan.

As of July 11, there have been no official reports of nude protests over the rising price of electricity.