No, This Photo Doesn't Show Aamir Khan With Jamaat-e-Ul Terrorist

Fact-check: The claim states that Aamir Khan met with a terrorist.

(Photo: The Quint)

A photo showing Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi in Saudi Arabia is being shared to claim that the duo met with a Jamaat-e-Ul terrorist named Tariq Jameel.

This comes amid the ongoing controversies surrounding Khan's upcoming movie Laal Singh Chaddha with Kareena Kapoor Khan. Some old statements made by them were taken out of context resulting in #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha trending on Twitter.

However, this picture dates back to October 2012 when Khan met Afridi and Maulana Tariq Jameel at Hajj.

CLAIM

The caption with the viral photo suggested that Aamir Khan and Shahid Afridi met and posed for a picture with a terrorist and that's why his upcoming movie should be boycotted.

An archived version of the post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Similar claims can be seen here and here.

We also received a query about this on our WhatsApp tipline.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On conducting a reverse image search of the photograph on Google Images, we came across an article by a Pakistan news website Sial News from 23 October 2012.

The report carried the same photo and mentioned that it shows Aamir Khan and Shahid Afridi with a religious scholar of Pakistan Maulana Tariq Jameel.

The image was taken in 2012. 

(Source: Sial News/Screenshot)

It also added that the three met in Saudi Arabia on the occasion of Hajj in 2012.

The same incident was also reported in 2012 by another Pakistani website, The Express Tribune and an Indian newspaper, The Hindu.

According to The Express Tribune's report, a former Pakistani music band Vital Signs' member Junaid Jamshed was also present in Mecca in 2012 where Khan was accompanied by his mother, Zeenat Hussain.

Taking a cue, we looked through Jamshed's Facebook posts and found a photo from 23 October 2012, with the caption: 'Shahid Afridi and Aamir Khan with Maulana Tariq Jameel.'

Jamshed died in a plane crash in Pakistan's Abbottabad on 7 December 2016.

Next, we conducted a keyword search using 'Maulana Tariq Jameel Aamir Khan' and came across a YouTube video uploaded by 'The Ink of scholars channel' on 24 November 2013.

In the video, Maulana speaks about how he met Aamir Khan during Hajj in 2012.

In the video, Jameel says, "There was no way for me to meet Aamir Khan when I went for Hajj. I did not know him and neither did he know me. So, I was not getting an opportunity to meet him. But Allah sent Shahid Afridi, who was friends with him and I asked him on the phone to arrange a meeting with Aamir Khan. He then made it happen."

We found no reports of the spiritual mentor being linked with any terrorist organisation.

A similar photo from the same event went viral with a false claim in 2020, which showed Khan with Jamshed and Jameel. You can read our fact-check regarding that photo here.

Clearly, an old picture from 2012 is being shared with a false claim that Aamir Khan can be seen with a terrorist.

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