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| - In late July and August 2024, a photograph circulated widely on social media, purportedly showing a padlock on a grave in Pakistan that was installed to prevent men from raping corpses.
(TikTok user @haavvaa_1)
One TikTok post with the claim reached more than 200,000 views, as of this writing. "Not even dead we're safe," a TikTok user commented under the post.
On X, another user shared the photograph in July 2024, captioning it:
In Pakistan, parents are now putting PADLOCKS on the graves of their dead daughters to prevent them from being dug up and raped. Western countries have to stop importing millions of men like this, who don't possess the intellectual capacity to understand that rape is wrong.
However, while the photograph is authentic, it was not taken in Pakistan, nor was the padlock installed to prevent the desecration of corpses. We rate this claim as "Miscaptioned."
Alt News, an Indian nonprofit fact-checking website, debunked the false claims associated with the photograph in April 2023. Its investigation revealed that the image was actually taken at a cemetery in Hyderabad, India.
Below you can find an exact location of the grave in an image from Google Maps:
Alt News reached out to Abdul Jaleel, a resident of Hyderabad, who visited the site and provided photographs of the grave in question:
(www.altnews.in)
The article explained the padlock was installed not to prevent rape, but to stop unauthorized burials over existing graves and keep the pathway clear at the cemetery entrance:
Jaleel spoke to Muqtar Sahab, who is the Muazzin of the Masjid E Salar Mulk. Muqtar Sahab said that the padlocked grave, which was approximately 1.5 to 2-year old, was constructed without the permission of the concerned committee. It is located right in front of the entrance, thus blocking the pathway. This issue was discussed among the Masjid committee members for eight days.
Explaining the reason behind the grille or jaali as Muqtar Sahab called it, he added, "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 Fateha. In order to prevent others from burying any bodies further, the families have put the grille there."
On being informed about the image of this grave being circulated with the claim that it is from Pakistan, Muqtar Sahab refuted it and added that the grille was constructed also with a view to preventing people from stamping on the grave since it was right in front of the entrance. Muqtar Sahab corroborated the address of the cemetery as Madannapet, Darab Jung colony, which matched Alt News' findings as stated earlier.
Similarly, Digital Forensics, Research and Analytics Center, a fact-checking organization based in India, also concluded the photo was taken in Hyderabad.
Newschecker, another fact-checking organization in India, reached out to local residents and the owner of a nearby shop, Jahangir Dairy, who confirmed the grave's location in the Hyderabad cemetery:
Newschecker reached out to the owner of Jahangir Dairy, a shop located nearby the graveyard in Telangana's Hyderabad, who confirmed to us that the viral picture is indeed from the cemetery in his neighbourhood.
We reached out to several other people from the locality who corroborated that the viral image is actually from a graveyard in India's Hyderabad. Adding that the grave seen in the viral picture is at the cemetery's entrance. It was locked so that no one steps on it, or builds another grave on the top without permission.
A Facebook post by @Deccan24Hyderabad, dated May 1, 2023, carried a video of the family members of the deceased buried in the padlocked grave explaining their reasons for putting up the iron gate and lock. A male family member of the deceased is heard saying that the lock was put in place as people used to throw garbage and other filthy objects at the grave.
BOOM, another fact-checking outlet, also debunked the false rumors regarding the photograph in May 2023. Agence France-Presse reported that one of its journalists visited the cemetery on May 2, 2023, and confirmed the grave's location in India.
This isn't the first time we've fact-checked a Pakistan-related rumor. For instance, in May 2023, we investigated a photo purportedly showing a woman facing armed police during protests in Lahore, Pakistan, against the arrest of ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan.
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