A video showing stacks of foreign currency, claiming to have been found in Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani’s house by officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), doing the rounds on social media as proof of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader’s corruption is fake.
Quick research reveals that the rather dubious looking semi-burnt currency notes are not what they look like. The images and video have no link. In fact, not only is the currency foreign and fake, but the video too was not made in Pakistan.
In fact, the video which was made last year is actually from an art installation from Madrid, Spain created by Spanish artist Alejandro Monge. The video was filmed by a visitor who saw Monge’s installation entitled “European Dream” at the Art Madrid festival in February 2018 and posted by the artist on his personal Instagram account from where it was stolen and fed to the Pakistani public.
The circulated video carries the caption explaining that the Durrani’s wife attempted to burn the cash when the anti-corruption officials arrived to raid the house.
“Hidden local and foreign currency notes are seen stacked in the basement of the house of Agha Siraj Durrani, Speaker of #Sindh Assembly in DHA #Karachi. His wife is said to have tried to set fire when NAB officials arrived to raid house and family refused to open doors,” read the misleading caption under the video posted by Twitter user ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ (@securepakistan) on March 10.
#Breaking: Hidden local and foreign currency notes are seen stacked in basement of the house of Agha Siraj Durrani, Speaker of #Sindh Assembly in DHA #Karachi. His wife is said to have tried to set fire when NAB officials arrived to raid house and family refused to open doors. pic.twitter.com/jpIy22W0ff
— Pakistan Zindabad (@securepakistan) March 10, 2019
Alarmingly, the post has already been retweeted more than 2,000 times with more than 2,500 users falling into the trap and liking the tweet.
The same video is also used being used to target Cameroon’s minister of defence and his wife by accusing them of corruption.
Videos with cleverly written misleading captions that falsely accuse people, both prominent and ordinary, are on the rise. Such fake videos are circulated and accepted as real every day.
