Fact-check: Woman in viral video is not Arshad Sharif’s mother
Posts show an older woman weeping as she remembers journalist and television anchor Arshad Sharif, who was killed in Kenya on Sunday
Updated Friday Oct 28 2022
Some social media users have been sharing videos and pictures of a woman alleging that she is the mother of slain Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif.
The allegation is false.
Claim
The posts show an older woman weeping as she remembers journalist and television anchor Arshad Sharif, who was killed in Kenya on Sunday.
The video is captioned: “After the martyrdom of Arshad Sharif, his mother's statement while crying.”
To date, the video has received over 700,000 views, 57,000 shares and 57,000 likes on Facebook.
The same video made its way onto Twitter, where it received over 300,000 views.
The video was also picked up by several Pakistani news channels.
Fact
The woman has been falsely identified as the mother of the 49-year-old Pakistani journalist.
In fact, the real mother of Arshad Sharif released a video message earlier this week, asking people to attend the funeral of her son, who died tragically in Kenya.
On October 26, the president of Pakistan is also seen meeting the slain journalist’s family at their home, where the mother can also be clearly seen.
Geo Television’s reporter in Islamabad, Haider Sherazi, who has been following the story of Sharif’s death, also confirmed to Geo Fact Check, that the woman in the social media video is not related to Arshad Sharif.
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