Fake Video: Tablighi Jamaat Member Running Through Hospital
The Claim
A video depicts a member of Tablighi Jamaat running naked through a hospital during the pandemic.
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Emerging story
In April 2020, social media users around the world posted video and screenshots of what they claimed was a member of Tablighi Jamaat running naked through a hospital. Pradeep, whose account has since been suspended, posted the video on Twitter with the caption “Jamati in isolation in UP!”
Misbar’s Analysis
Social media users claim that a video, which shows a man running naked through what they say is a hospital, portrays a member of Tablighi Jamaat as he deals with COVID-19-induced isolation.
However, Misbar's investigation split the video into specific frames and used a reverse image search to discover that the video was initially posted online in August 2019. The man in the video struggles with mental health issues and broke into a mosque in Karachi, Pakistan. Beyond the image search, close analysis of screenshots from the video show that the building's decor and the attire of its inhabitants indicate that it is actually a mosque. Finally, several other sources, including earlier posts on YouTube, prove that the video is from Karachi, Pakistan. A longer version of the video shows that the naked man is being followed by a man on a bike before he breaks into the mosque. The (translated) caption to this longer video says: "An unidentified man broke into the Khalid Bin Walid mosque of the Ahl-e-Hadith school district on Gulshan-e-Hadid Phase 2 Double Road and the imam's place lay down after the glasses were damaged."
AltNews and The Cognate also both ran fact checks on the video.
Further investigation shows that the naked man, Shafiq Abro, was arrested by Steel Town Police.
