AI-made posts falsely show Mahira Khan, Sajal Aly backing Indian protest

Screenshots that went viral in India claiming to show Pakistani actresses Mahira Khan and Sajal Aly backing a youth-led protest against India’s ruling party are fake and were generated using artificial intelligence, a fact check has found.

The images were shared on October 8 by several supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who presented them as Instagram stories from the two actresses supporting the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) planned October 10 rally in New Delhi, according to iVerify Pakistan, published by The Express Tribune.

What the fake posts claimed

The supposed Mahira Khan story said she backed the protest by CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, but could not come because “the BJP has banned Pakistani actors from entering India”.

The supposed Sajal Aly story claimed that “someone is getting kicked out of power in the neighbouring country” and hoped new leaders would improve relations.

BJP supporters posted the images with captions such as “CJP has started receiving support from Pakistan” and “Pakistani actress wants regime change in India”. One post linked the actresses to claims of “foreign funding” behind the protests. The Mahira Khan claim alone was shared widely enough to gather about 38,000 views.

How they were shown to be fake

The fact check found:

• no credible Indian or Pakistani media outlet had reported any such posts
• no fans, Pakistani users or industry figures had commented on or reacted to the alleged posts
• neither actress’s official Instagram account carried any such story; Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours, but the claims only surfaced on October 8
• in the Mahira Khan image, Abhijeet Dipke’s fingers appeared distorted, a common flaw in AI images
• a detection tool found a SynthID signal, an invisible watermark embedded in AI-made content, indicating the image was likely generated or edited with AI tools. Unlike ordinary metadata, such a watermark is part of the image itself and is designed to survive cropping, filters and compression

AI-detection services also flagged the images. For the Mahira Khan image, Sightengine rated it 99 per cent doctored, Decopy 91pc AI-generated and AI or Not 76pc. For the Sajal Aly image, Truthscan and Undetectable AI each rated it 95pc doctored or edited.

The fact check concluded that the actresses made no such posts and that the viral visuals were AI-generated.

The protests behind it

The fakes appeared amid growing protests in India, which began on October 2 with thousands gathering in New Delhi and Mumbai, against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a revision of voter lists that opposition groups say has removed millions of voters to benefit the BJP. The Election Commission and the BJP deny the claims.

On Thursday, the CJP said Indian authorities had begun mass detentions of its activists ahead of the Delhi rally.

Why it matters

The case shows how AI-generated images are being used to drag Pakistani public figures into Indian domestic politics, painting a homegrown protest as Pakistan-backed.

This article draws on reporting by The Express Tribune and iVerify Pakistan.