Posts from multiple users on social media platform X shared a video on Thursday claiming it showed supporters of the religiopolitical Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) chanting anti-state slogans at a recent Karachi sit-in. However, the chants were actually against the United States.

The MWM staged sit-ins across various locations in Karachi since December 24 to draw the attention of law enforcement authorities to the violence in Parachinar and Kurram district. The protests concluded on Wednesday after a successful peace agreement was reached among the different warring factions in Kurram.

The protests also saw violence and clashes between the demonstrators and the police at many spots in Karachi during its last days.

On Thursday, a pro-PMLN account on X shared a video of a protest leader chanting “murdabad” (death) with the crowd responding in turn.

The caption of the post read: “A while ago, a major political party and its founder and leader were banned in Karachi for chanting ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ (death to Pakistan). Now, these people are openly raising the same slogan at Numaish. Let’s see if any restrictions are imposed on them in the coming days or not.”

The post gained 76,500 views.

The video was widely shared by other users with similar captions as can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.

The video was also shared by many users on Facebook as can be seen here, here, here, here and here.

The comments sections of the posts were observed with users calling for a ban on the MWM and terming it a traitorous group along with other hateful comments.

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and the potential to incite political and sectarian tensions due to the inflammatory allegations regarding the religio-political organisation’s loyalty.

Contrary to the viral allegations, checking the video showed that with the protest leader’s chant of “murdabad”, the crowd could be heard responding in kind with sloganeering of “America Murdabad” (death to America).

In the 35-second long video, the protest leader and crowd also chanted: “Whoever is a friend of America is a traitor, a traitor,” and there was no anti-state or anti-Pakistan speech.

Therefore, the fact-check determined that the claim that an MWM leader and workers chanted anti-Pakistan slogans at the Numaish sit-in in Karachi is false.

The viral video being circulated actually showed them chanting “death to America” and there was no slogan against the state of Pakistan. The allegations were a clear fabrication to spread and incite hate against the religiopolitical group since a basic examination of the circulating video showed the claim was not rooted in facts.

This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ and UNDP.