A nearly ten-year-old picture of actor Aamir Khan standing with two people has been revived on social media with a false claim that the actor met with a terrorist in Saudi Arabia.
BOOM found that the picture is old and Aamir Khan can be seen posing with Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi's brother Mushtaq Afridi and a religious scholar Maulana Tariq Jamil. The photo is from 2012 when Khan made a trip to Mecca along with his mother during Hajj.
A section of social media users has been asking to boycott the Aamir Khan-starrer film Laal Singh Chaddha for the controversial comments the actor made in 2015 about growing intolerance in India. Reacting to the same, Khan said that the social media trolling has made him sad and it is untrue that he does not love his country.
The Hindi caption with the picture translates to, "Aamir Khan with Afridi and Jamaat-e-ul terrorist Tariq Jameel. Satyameva Jayate!!!! Share this as much as possible and make the truth of this Aamir known to the people."
(Original Text in Hindi: आमिर खान, अफरीदी और जमैत ए उल के आतंकवादी तारिक जमील के साथ।। सत्यमेव जयते!!!! इसको ज्यादा से ज्यादा शेयर करें और इस आमिर की सच्चाई लोगो तक पहिचाये।।)
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Fact Check
A keyword search for "Aamir Khan Afridi Tariq Jameel" led us to a news report published on October 23, 2012 carrying the same picture.
The report stated that Pakistani religious scholar Tariq Jameel had then met Aamir at a local hotel in Saudi Arabia. The article also reported that the actor met former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi during his Hajj visit.
We also found The Express Tribune article published on October 23, 2012 reporting the same.
According to the report, former Vital Signs member Junaid Jamshed was also present at the occasion. Vital Signs is known as Pakistan's first music band to achieve commercial success.
Taking a cue, we ran a keyword search on deceased Pakistani pop star-turned-preacher Junaid Jamshed's official Facebook page and found that the same photo was posted on October 23, 2012. Junaid Jamshed lost his life in a plane crash in 2016.
The image is captioned as, "Shahid Afridi and Aamir Khan with Maulana Tariq Jameel.."
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BOOM however was able to confirm that the man in the photograph is Shahid Afridi's brother Mushtaq Afridi. We reached out to Mushtaq Afridi who confirmed that it is him in the photograph.
Furthermore, we found a YouTube video uploaded on a channel named The Ink of scholars on November 24, 2013. Maulana Tariq Jamil, in the video, spoke about how Shahid Afridi helped him to meet Aamir Khan upon his request during Hajj 2012.
Maulana Tariq Jamil in the video says, "There was no way for me to meet him (Aamir Khan) when I went (Hajj). Neither I knew him nor did he know me. I was not getting an opportunity to meet him. So, Allah sent our cricketer Shahid Afridi who was friends with him. I asked him (Shahid Afridi) on phone to arrange a meeting. He (Shahid Afridi) then made it happen."
Additionally, we did not find any credible news article reporting about Maulana Tariq Jamil's link with any terrorist organisation.
Earlier also, BOOM had debunked posts making false claims about the same meeting.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story misidentified Mushtaq Afridi as Shahid Afridi. The error is deeply regretted.
