Old photo of injured young cleric falsely shared as 'Pakistani Islamic scholar Tariq Jameel'

An old photo of a man in blood-soaked clothes circulated in March 2024 in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed popular Pakistani Muslim preacher Maulana Tariq Jameel, who "was severely injured in a road accident". The picture actually showed a different Pakistani Muslim cleric, Maulana Azad Jameel, who was injured in a traffic accident in 2019. Azad Jameel confirmed to AFP that it was him in the photo.

"Maulana Tariq Jameel, one of popular Pakistani writers and religious scholars, has been severely injured in a road accident," read the Bengali-language caption of a Facebook post, published on March 20, 2024. "May God grant the dearest preacher of the Koran a speedy recovery."

The post, which racked up more than 200 reactions, shared two photos.

The first picture shows Pakistan's leading preacher Maulana Tariq Jameel, 71, who has a huge following not only in his home country but also in neighbouring Bangladesh and India (archived link). His sermons are widely broadcast on Pakistani TV stations and his social media accounts attract millions of followers.

The second image shows a bearded man in blood-soaked white clothes.

Similar Bengali posts also circulated elsewhere on Facebook here, here, here and here, receiving more than 400 reactions in total.

The photo of the injured man also appeared with a similar claim in Urdu on Facebook and on X.

Comments on the posts suggested social media users believed the claim, with many wishing the septuagenarian Islamic scholar a speedy recovery.

However, the claim is false; the photo in fact shows another Pakistani Muslim preacher.

Old photo

A reverse image search on Google found the same photo was published on the Facebook page of Pakistani Muslim cleric Maulana Azad Jameel on May 30, 2019 (archived links here and here).

"Prominent young scholar Maulana Azad Jameel had a road accident. Maulana was seriously injured," read the post's caption.

The Facebook post also uploaded two other similar pictures of Azad Jameel receiving a medial treatment.

Azad Jameel -- who is not related to Tariq Jameel -- is also known for delivering religious sermons on Pakistani television (archived links here and here).

On March 26, 2024, the 28-year-old preacher told AFP that it was him in the photo.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the false post (left) and the genuine photo from Azad Jameel’s Facebook post (right):

The older cleric, Tariq Jameel, published a statement on his Facebook page on March 21, 2024, dismissing the claim (archived here).

"Praise be to God, Maulana sir is alright. The news spreading on social media is false," the statement said.

In a video broadcast on Facebook on the same day, his son, Maulana Yousaf Jameel, said that his father "is absolutely fine" (archived link).

He denounced the claim circulating on social media, saying it was "absolutely wrong, baseless and false".