An old video from Pakistan showing a protester throwing away a tear gas canister is falsely linked to the 2025 Nepal protests
On 04 September 2025, the Nepal government banned 26 major social media platforms, sparking nationwide youth-led protests that turned violent from 08 September 2025 onwards, leaving at least 25 people dead and 633 injured as demonstrators clashed with security forces and targeted government properties, including the residence of the President. Despite lifting the ban on 09 September 2025, anger persisted, with protesters demanding Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli’s resignation over corruption and inequality. Oli stepped down the same day along with several ministers. At the same time, the army was deployed to restore order as Nepal grappled with its biggest political and social crisis in recent years, fuelled by high youth unemployment, corruption, and resentment against entrenched elites.
Amidst this, a video is circulating on social media (here, here, and here) claiming to show visuals of the Nepal protests, where a protester is seen catching a tear gas canister mid-air and hurling it away. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows a protester catching a tear gas canister mid-air and throwing it away during the September 2025 Nepal protests.
Fact: The viral video predates the September 2025 Nepal protests and has been online since at least May 2022. The presence of a Total PARCO fuel station in the footage further confirms the location as Pakistan, not Nepal. According to reports, it was filmed in Lahore and shows a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party worker catching and throwing away a tear gas canister during clashes with police. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
A reverse image search of key frames from the viral video led us to several social media posts (here, here, and here) from May 2022, featuring the same clip, which clearly predates the September 2025 Nepal protests. These posts claimed the visuals were from Lahore, Pakistan.
Taking a cue from these social media posts, we searched online using relevant keywords and found multiple media reports reporting the same video (here, here, and here). According to the reports, it allegedly shows a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party worker in Lahore catching and throwing a lit tear gas canister, an act widely praised on social media.
According to reports (here, here), in May 2022, Lahore saw clashes between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters and police during the lead-up to the planned Azadi March. Protesters gathered at different points in the city, aiming to march towards Islamabad to demand early elections. In response, police deployed tear gas and baton-charged demonstrators to control the crowds. These confrontations marked the start of a series of protests that escalated over the following days, becoming part of a wider nationwide movement.
In these videos, the name ‘Total PARCO’ is visible on a fuel station on the left side of the road. Total PARCO in Pakistan refers to Total PARCO Pakistan Limited (TPPL), a joint venture between TotalEnergies and Pak-Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO), which operates fuel stations across Pakistan. This confirms that the viral video was filmed in Pakistan, not Nepal.
To sum up, an old video from Pakistan showing a protester catching and throwing away a tear gas canister is falsely linked to the 2025 Nepal protests.