Closed circuit cameras in stores showed that three recent thefts, each of jewelry valued at more than US $8,500, were carried out by customers wearing burqas. –AP
Veiled Threats
Veiled Indian Muslim women walk through a street during heavy rains in Bhopal, India, in this, Aug. 25, 2002 file photo. Muslim women wearing the head-to-toe Islamic robe, or burqa, could be banned from shopping at jewelry stores in this western Indian city after a series of thefts carried out by burqa-clad robbers, jewelers said Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006. (AP Photo)
After three recent jewelry heists were carried out by burqa-clad women, jewelers in Pune India have banned women wearing burqas from their stores.
Calcutta News reports:
A proposal by the Maharashtra Jewellers Association in Pune not to allow burqa-clad women inside jewellery stores has evoked criticism from the state minority commission.
The decision comes after jewellery worth Rs.150 million was stolen from stores across the state in the last six months, eight of which have taken place in Pune alone.
Three of the recent heists were carried out by burqa-clad women who decamped with jewellery worth Rs.1 million from three stores in Raviwar Peth, the jewelley hub of Pune, last month alone.
Stung by the larcenies, the association wrote to Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil to allow jewellers in Pune to put up ‘no-burqa’ policy outside their shops. To press their demand, Pune jewellers have decided to shut their stores Friday.
There have been more than a dozen thefts from jewelry stores in Pune in the last month.
Muslim groups are opposing the burqa ban.
