Fact Check: Pakistani minister assaults couple on camera? Here’s what happened
Claim: The video shows Pakistan’s Punjab education minister, Rana Sikandar Hayat, assaulting a woman and her partner after they participated in a recent protest in Lahore.
Fact: The claim is false. The incident occurred in 2021, and the man in the video is Usman Mirza.
Hyderabad: A viral video shows a man assaulting a woman and her partner in a room. Those sharing the clip claim it features education minister Rana Sikandar Hayat from the Maryam Nawaz government attacking the couple for participating in a protest against the sexual assault on a woman in Lahore.
Giving a hypothetical communal angle to the incident, X handle, Baba Banaras, infamous for peddling misinformation, shared the video (trigger warning: visuals of violence) and wrote, “An incident has come to light from Pakistan which has shaken the entire world. In Pakistan’s Punjab province, Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat in the Maryam Nawaz government stripped a girl and assaulted her in front of a camera. The crime of that girl and her partner was that they had participated in the protest against the assault of a girl at Lahore University. Now just imagine that when a Pakistani minister can openly do this to a Muslim woman in front of the camera, then what will the people of Pakistan do with the Hindus?” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The incident occurred in 2021. The man assaulting the couple is Usman Mirza, not Pakistan’s Punjab education minister, Rana Sikandar Hayat.
We conducted a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes and found the same visuals featured in video reports by Pakistani news outlets ARY News and BOl News. Both reports identified the main accused as Usman Mizra.
Further, we ran a keyword search and came across a report by The Tribune published on March 25, 2022, titled ‘Usman Mirza, four others get life imprisonment.’ The report carried the image of Usman Mirza, and he was sentenced after ‘a video of the culprits harassing a couple at gunpoint went viral on social media in July 2021.’
According to the report, then PM Imran Khan, upon taking note of the case, instructed the Islamabad IG to ensure the accused received the harshest possible punishment. The Islamabad High Court directed the trial court to conclude the trial within the first two months, later extending it by an additional three months. Usman Mirza, along with Idris Qayyum Butt, Mohib Khan Bangash, Hafiz Ataur Rehman and Farhan Shaheen were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
In an article dated March 25, 2022, Dawn reported that a sessions court in Islamabad sentenced Usman Mirza to life imprisonment for holding a couple at gunpoint, forcing them to strip, assaulting them and filming the ordeal. The article also noted that Mirza’s accomplices and co-accused—Hafiz Ataur Rehman, Adaras Qayyum Butt, Mohib Bangash and Farhan Shaheen—were also sentenced to life in prison, while two other men, Umar Bilal and Rehan Hassan Mughal, were acquitted.
Lastly, we searched for reports accusing Rana Sikandar Hayat of sexual assault but found no such claims in the Pakistani media. Hence, we conclude that the video is from 2021 and does not show the Punjab education minister sexually assaulting a woman on video. The claim is false.
(This story was originally published by newsmeter.in, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)
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Kangana Ranaut sparks row: Claims Gandhi made 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' the national anthem
New Delhi: A significant political controversy has erupted following the Modi government's decision to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a move that has drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties. The row was further fueled by BJP MP Kangana Ranaut, who, while defending the name change, erroneously claimed that Mahatma Gandhi had made the devotional song "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram" India’s national anthem.
The central government has rebranded the flagship rural employment scheme from MGNREGA to the "Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission," abbreviated as VB-G RAM G. The removal of Mahatma Gandhi's name from the scheme has been termed an insult to the Father of the Nation by the Congress and other opposition parties.
When questioned by the media outside Parliament regarding the opposition's allegations, Mandi MP Kangana Ranaut defended the government's decision by invoking Mahatma Gandhi's devotion to Lord Ram.
"How is naming it 'Ram Ji' an insult to Gandhi ji?" Ranaut asked. "Mahatma Gandhi made 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' the national anthem to organize the entire country. Therefore, this is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi? The government is fulfilling his dream by giving it the name of Ram."
Ranaut's claim regarding the national anthem was immediately seized upon by the opposition. Congress leader Supriya Shrinate shared the video of Ranaut’s statement on social media, tweeting sarcastically, "Come on brother, today we learned a new national anthem! The BJP is full of such gems."
Social media users also trolled the MP for the factual error. One user quipped, "Kangana ji forgot to mention that Bapu made this the national anthem after the country got independence in 2014," while another commented that the party finds people who "don't use their brains while forwarding WhatsApp messages."
Beyond the social media mockery, senior Congress leaders criticised the renaming on ideological grounds. Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot took to X (formerly Twitter) to condemn the move.
"The biggest irony is that Mahatma Gandhi was a lifelong devotee of Lord Ram and said 'Hey Ram' in his last moments," Gehlot wrote. "Today, the central government is making a despicable attempt to sideline Gandhi ji under the guise of the same 'Ram' name (VB-G RAM G), which is highly condemnable."
मनरेगा का नाम बदलने की केंद्र सरकार की कवायद महात्मा गांधी के प्रति उनकी ओछी मानसिकता और असम्मान का प्रमाण है। सरकार पहले 'पूज्य बापू' के नाम का शिगूफा छोड़ती है और फजीहत होने पर अब 'विकसित भारत-गारंटी फॉर रोजगार एंड आजीविका मिशन (VB-G RAM G)' जैसा नाम थोपना चाहती है। बार-बार नाम…
— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) December 15, 2025
गांधी जी ने ‘रघुपति राघव राजा राम’ को लेकर नेशनल एंथम बनाया था
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) December 16, 2025
BJP MP कंगना रनौत
चलो भाई आज नया नेशनल एंथम भी पता चला है!
BJP में एक से एक शिरोमणि भरे पड़े हैं 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/9DvyV5xLb1
