A video of an altercation at a toll plaza in Bangladesh has been shared hundreds of times in Pakistan, alongside a false claim that it shows supporters of ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. The messages circulated as PTI protesters held a rally in the eastern megacity of Lahore following a series of protests calling for Khan’s release from prison.
“These ill-mannered people, instead of paying the toll tax for their cars, have resorted to destroying (the toll booth). This is the real face of PTI,” an Urdu official said. subtitles next to the video on Facebook on September 22, 2024.
It shows a yellow truck transporting people through a toll plaza. A man dressed in traditional Islamic clothing approaches the toll gate barrier and tries to pull it down before it finally swings open.
Some of the truck’s passengers then exit the vehicle and appear to gather in groups around the toll booths. A little later they get back on the truck before it drives through the toll gate.
The false claim emerged soon after PTI held a rally in Lahore on September 21 calling for Khan’s release.
The party has faced a sweeping crackdown since Khan was jailed last August on a series of charges he said were politically motivated and aimed at keeping him from power.
Similar posts have been posted with over 900 shares here And here on X.
However, the wrongly shared clip was not shot in Pakistan.
Bangladesh incident
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes on Google found a Bengali language news article by bdnews24, a Bangladeshi online newspaper (archived link).
The report was about an altercation on September 18 at a toll plaza on the Dhaka Elevated Expressway.
It included an image from the video under the headline “Fight with toll plaza workers on highway, this is what authorities say”.
According to the report, an employee at the Kuril Toll Plaza stopped a yellow pickup truck after it violated safety regulations because it was carrying too many passengers.
AFP contacted Hasib Hasan Khan, the operations and maintenance manager of First Dhaka Elevated Expressway Company Limited, who confirmed that the images shared online show the incident.
He said there was a “misunderstanding” between toll plaza staff and the people in the truck – who he said were mourners traveling to a funeral.
“These were all relatives of a deceased man and they went to bury the dead body. The freezer containing the dead body had already passed on the highway,” he said. “They lost their patience, so this incident happened. Nothing was damaged, no one was injured. We have not filed a complaint against anyone. It was a misunderstanding.”
Below is a screenshot comparison of the fake message (left) and the camera footage (right):
The same toll booth can be seen Google Street View (archived link).
AFP has debunked other false claims regarding protests by PTI supporters here And here.
