Amid the recent political tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor — which media reports claim targeted the family members of Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed — a photo (here and here) has gone viral on social media. The photo appears to show Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shaking hands with Hafiz Saeed, with claims suggesting that PM Modi is supporting terrorists like Saeed. Let’s find the truth behind this photo.
Claim: The viral photo shows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shaking hands with terrorist Hafiz Saeed.
Fact: The viral photo is edited. The original photo is from PM Modi’s surprise visit to Pakistan on 25 December 2015, where he met then-Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif. The face of Sharif has been digitally replaced with Hafiz Saeed’s. Multiple official visuals and tweets from PIB and PM Modi confirm the meeting was with Sharif, not Saeed. No credible evidence suggests Modi ever met Hafiz Saeed. Hence, the claim is FALSE.
To find the truth, we performed a reverse image search on Google and found a similar photo, but instead of Hafiz Saeed, it showed former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The photo was posted on X by Hindustan Times on 26 December 2015, which suggests that the viral photo may be edited.
Further research led us to several media reports, including the original photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (here, here, here, and here). According to the reports, Prime Minister Modi made a surprise stopover in Lahore on 25 December 2015 to meet Nawaz Sharif. The visit, which coincided with Sharif’s birthday and his granddaughter’s wedding, was marked by warm hospitality and goodwill. It was the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Pakistan since 2004.
It is clear from comparing the viral photo with the original photo of Modi and Nawaz Sharif’s meeting that the viral photo is edited. The head of Nawaz Sharif has been replaced with Hafiz Saeed’s face, while the attire of both leaders and the people around them confirms the match.
Additionally, we found that the PIB had tweeted about this visit on 25 December 2015, stating that PM Narendra Modi was warmly received by PM Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, Pakistan. The tweet included multiple visuals of the visit, showing different angles of the original photo featuring Modi and Sharif. PM Modi also tweeted on the same day, mentioning that he spoke to Nawaz Sharif and wished him on his birthday. A keyword search for any meeting between Modi and Hafiz Saeed yielded no credible reports, further confirming that the viral photo is edited.
To sum up, the photo claiming to show PM Modi with Hafiz Saeed is edited; the original shows him greeting Nawaz Sharif in Lahore in 2015.
