A social media claim went viral on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, alleging ‘brothers’ of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PTI President Junaid Akbar had beaten up a ‘poor man’ for speaking up against the PTI leader.

A fact check run by Aaj News found that the claim was false and the footage posted to social media was not even remotely connected with Akbar.

Claim

Several X handles posted a video with a similar caption, saying PTI KP President Junaid Akbar’s brothers tortured a poor man for speaking against Akbar.

“The oppressors tried to remove the poor man’s trousers. They tried to force him to open his mouth and urinate… Will this poor man get justice? Speaking against PTI on social media has become a crime,” the posts accompanied by a video read.

The video showed a man being beaten with sticks by some people. The man is repeatedly made to say that he repented his actions. Everyone, including the victim, is speaking Pashto.

Fact check

Although social media posts claimed people in the video were Akbar’s brothers, a closer examination of the video revealed that they did not speak the dialect of Pashto spoken in the Malakand region, from where Akbar comes from.

The dialect spoken by people in the video is from the Hangu district of KP. Some PTI supporters also claimed that the video was from Hangu.

Aaj News was able to trace the incident to a police FIR registered on November 23, 2024, at the Doaba Police Station in Hangu. The FIR identified the victim as Momeen Khan, who accused three people of beating him up.

Sources said the victim had an altercation with one of the men, who later summoned others and beat Momeen Khan. It was also reported that the issue was later resolved between the parties.

Sources further told Aaj News that PTI’s Akbar did not have any brothers. He had only one brother who passed away years ago.