Hyderabad: A picture that had gone viral on social media claiming that grill locks were used on graves in Pakistan to prevent rape has turned out to be from a graveyard in Telengana's Hyderabad.
On April 29, news agency ANI reported a story with the caption 'Pakistani parents lock daughters' graves to avoid rape' while using the Hyderabad grave picture. The report was quoting a tweet from controversial Athiest author from Pakistan Harris Sultan who too had shared the same picture and claimed that it was a grave somewhere in Pakistan and parents had put "padlocks on the graves of their daughters to prevent them from getting raped".
The image shows a grave with a grill lock secured over it, and the caption suggests that Pakistani parents use this method to protect their daughters' remains. However, this claim is entirely false as now it has come to the fore that the picture of the grave is originally from Hyderabad. Harris deleted his tweet soon after his claim was debunked.
Several media outlets, meanwhile, had carried the ANI story. The grave is actually from a cemetery located in Darab Jung Colony at Madannapet, Hyderabad. "This Grave is in India not from Pakistan. It is in DarabJung Colony, Madannapet, Hyderabad, Telangana. And a lock has been put on this grave so that no one should bury someone else in this grave," read a tweet from one user Zaman.
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This Grave is in India not from Pakistan.
— زماں (@Delhiite_) April 30, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
It is in DarabJung Colony, Madannapet, Hyderabad, Telangana
And a lock has been put on this grave so that no one should bury someone else in this grave. pic.twitter.com/p1WaUlwDcf
">This Grave is in India not from Pakistan.
— زماں (@Delhiite_) April 30, 2023
It is in DarabJung Colony, Madannapet, Hyderabad, Telangana
And a lock has been put on this grave so that no one should bury someone else in this grave. pic.twitter.com/p1WaUlwDcfThis Grave is in India not from Pakistan.
— زماں (@Delhiite_) April 30, 2023
It is in DarabJung Colony, Madannapet, Hyderabad, Telangana
And a lock has been put on this grave so that no one should bury someone else in this grave. pic.twitter.com/p1WaUlwDcf
The Twitter user also shared the video of the caretaker of the local mosque near the graveyard explaining the origins of the grave. "The grave is around 1.5 to 2 years old. It (the grave) was constructed without the permission of the concerned Masjid committee as it is located right in front of the entrance thus blocking the pathway.
“A lot of people come here and bury bodies over the old graves without permission. The people who already have their close ones resting here have had complaints since they come here to read prayers. In order to prevent others from burying any bodies further, the families have placed the grill on it," he said.
The grave, according to AltNews, belonged to an aged woman who had passed away in her seventies. Her son constructed the iron grill over the grave about 40 days after she had been buried, the report added.
