A photo of a grave locked with an iron grill is being widely shared on social media claiming that parents in Pakistan are putting up padlocks on the graves of their daughters to prevent them from getting raped. The post claims that there is a rampant increase in necrophilia cases in Pakistan and that people are putting padlocks on their daughter’s graves to prevent such cases. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo showing a female grave locked with an iron grill to avoid rape in Pakistan.
Fact: The locked grave shown in the photo is from a graveyard in the Madannapet area of Hyderabad in Telangana. According to locals, a man locked his family member’s grave with an iron grill so that no one could bury other’s body in this grave. While the reports on rampant increase in necrophilia cases in Pakistan are true, the image shared in the post is from India and has nothing to do with Pakistan. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
When we searched for further sources using relevant keywords on the internet, we found an article published recently by the Pakistan-based ‘Daily Times’ news site on the rampant increase in necrophilia (sexual intercourse with corpses) cases in Pakistan. The article reports that in some areas of Pakistan, parents were putting up iron fences around the graves of their daughters to prevent them from getting raped.
Several old reports informing necrophilia cases in Pakistan can be seen here, here and here. Such incidents have been reported in Pakistan since 2011.
While reporting the latest news published by the ‘Daily Times’, several Indian news websites including ANI, NDTV, ABP, Amar Ujala, Hindustan Times, Free Press Journal, India TV and others published the same photo of a grave locked with an iron grill.
The locked grave in the photo is located in Hyderabad
When we searched for further sources, we found that the locked tomb seen in the photo is at the graveyard in Rein Bazaar of the Madannapet area in Hyderabad, Telangana.
As the photo went viral on social media, several local media outlets in Hyderabad published videos reporting that the locked grave is located at the graveyard in the Madannapet Rein Bazar area in Hyderabad. Those news reports can be seen here, here, here and here. As part of the investigation, these organisations spoke to the concerned persons at the graveyard in Rein Bazar and provided clarity regarding the locked tomb.
According to these reports, many people were burying the bodies by digging the old graves, without taking permission, at the graveyard in Rein Bazar. To prevent people from burying someone else’s body on his family member’s grave, a man reportedly locked his family member’s grave with an iron grill. As per the reports, the grave was about 1.5-2 years old and since it was in front of the gate, grills were erected so that no one could walk on it. The Google Street View of the Area also shows this grill.
NDTV, WION and many other news sites published articles clarifying that the image is from the graveyard in the Madannapet area of Hyderabad.
To sum it up, while the reports on increase in necrophilia cases in Pakistan are true, the image shared in the post is not from Pakistan.
