Morphed Pic Shared To Falsely Claim Pak Minister Strip Searched At US Airport

A photo of a man who stripped naked at the Portland International Airport's security gate in 2012, has been morphed with the face of Sheh­r­yar Khan Afridi, a Pakistani parliamentarian and is being shared with a false claim that Afridi was stripped searched naked at the JFK airport in New York.

Afridi, who is the chairman of Pakistan's parliamentary committee on Kashmir, was sent to New York by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan as part of a delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and had arrived in the US on September 15, 2021. He was stopped briefly at New York's JFK Airport for a secondary screening but was later allowed to enter the country, Dawn reported on September 19, 2021. Citing sources, the newspaper reported that Afridi was questioned for about an hour and was allo­wed to enter the US when the Pakistan consulate in New York confirmed his credentials.

In this context, three photos - two photos of a man seen standing naked and a third news graphic on Afridi being screened at JFK Airport, are being shared with the false claim that the man in the photo is Afridi.

The photos are being shared with the caption, "Pakistan's Interior Minister Shahriar Afridi has been stripped of his clothes at a US airport"

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FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that Sheh­r­yar Khan Afridi's face has been morphed onto the viral image.

On running a reverse image search, the search results showed news reports on the viral photo stating that it is from an incident in April 2012, when John E. Brennan had stripped naked at Portland International Airport to protest additional screening measures at the airport.

In the photo below used in an NBC News report, we can see the same photo, and can spot that the man's face in the original photo is different from the viral photo.

The caption of the photo reads, "April 17, photo taken at Portland International Airport, John E. Brennan stands naked after he stripped down while going through a security screening area, as a protest against airport security procedures. The incident report said Brennan's actions Tuesday evening caused some passengers to cover their eyes and their children's eyes while others looked, laughed and took photos. He later told authorities he flies often"

We also found a news report on the incident uploaded on ABC News's YouTube channel on April 19, 2012.

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Additionally, Afridi also tweeted on the morphed photo calling it fake news and alleged that this was propaganda by the "Indian lobby" because he was in the US for the cause of Kashmir.

On comparing both the viral photo and the original photo, we can clearly spot that Afridi's face has been morphed onto it.

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