Fact-check: Video from Nepal falsely linked to protests in Peshawar
Video shows protests in Nepal, not Imran Khan supporters surrounding Peshawar’s Governor House
Updated Tuesday Oct 20 2026
A video viewed tens of thousands of times on Pakistani social media purportedly shows supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan surrounding the Governor House in Peshawar following the imposition of governor's rule and an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The claim is false. The footage dates to September 2025 and shows protests in Nepal, not Pakistan.
Claim
Days after the federal government imposed governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an X user shared the video with the caption: "Governor House reportedly surrounded by Imran Khan’s supporters!"
The clip shows a large crowd gathered outside a building, with smoke rising from the structure. At the time of writing, the post had garnered approximately 48,900 views, 582 likes and 239 reposts.
Similar claims accompanied the footage in posts on X and Facebook.
Fact
The footage is from Nepal, where protests took place in September 2025. It is unrelated to events in Pakistan.
A search using relevant keywords and reverse image searches traced the clip to a YouTube Short published by Geo News English on September 9, 2025. The video shows protesters gathered outside the Birendra International Convention Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal.
A spokesperson for the Governor House in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who requested anonymity, also confirmed that the building shown in the circulating footage was not the Governor House in Peshawar.
A photograph of the actual Governor House, obtained from the official website of the provincial governor, further shows that the building differs from the one in the viral clip.
Separately, Agence France-Presse (AFP) published an Arabic-language fact-check on October 14, 2026, identifying the footage as showing protests in Nepal in September 2025, not recent events in Pakistan.
Verdict: The video shows protests in Nepal in September 2025, not supporters of Imran Khan surrounding the Governor House in Peshawar.
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