| schema:text
| - A video showing a man, accompanied by a few others, harassing a couple and later reportedly sexually assaulting the woman is being shared on social media.
The claim: The clip is being shared to claim that it shows Pakistani education minister Rana Sikandar Hayat harassing a woman and her partner after they participated in the protest against the sexual assault of a woman studying at Pakistan's Lahore University.
Archives of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.
Is it true?: No, the claim is false.
The video dates back to 2021 and shows one Usman Mirza harassing the couple and sexually assaulting the woman at gunpoint.
An Islamabad court found Mirza and six others guilty, sentencing them to life imprisonment.
How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on the video, which led us to a Facebook post from July 2021, which said that it showed one Usman Mirza.
We also came across an X post from 2024, which also mentioned that it showed Usman Mirza and four others entering a couple's hotel room in Islamabad, Pakistan in July 2021.
Carrying the viral video, the post added that Mirza and four others physically assaulted the couple and sexually assaulted the woman.
Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search using the term 'Usman Mirza 2021'.
This led us to a news report by Pakistani news organisation ARY News, published on 30 September 2021, which discussed the details of the incident.
The reporter said that a few people forcefully entered a guest house in Islamabad, harassing a couple to make unsavoury videos on gunpoint.
She added that the men continued to harass the couple for months, blackmailing them and extorting them to get over 12-13 lakh rupees (three to four lakh Indian rupees).
The report identified the attacker in the video as Usman Mirza, saying that Mirza, along with seven of his accomplices, were arrested and given life sentences.
According to GeoTV, Islamabad police filed a First Information Report (FIR) and arrested Mirza shortly after the video first went viral in July 2021.
Seven accused were presented in front of a judge at a sessions court in Islamabad, which found five people – Usman Mirza, Hafiz Atta ur Rehman, Adaras Qayyum Butt, Farhan Shaheen, and Mohib Bangash – guilty, awarding them life sentences in prison.
Two others, Umar Bilal Rehan Hassan and Mughal, were acquitted.
Mirza and the four others appealed their sentences in 2023, but their appeals were rejected by the Islamabad High Court, upholding their life imprisonment sentence, ARY News reported.
Conclusion: A 2021 video of one Usman Mirza assaulting and sexually harassing a couple has falsely gone viral as one of Pakistan's education minister Rana Sikandar Hayat harassing a woman for participating in a protest.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)