2 burqa-clad Muslim women held for damaging statues at religious sites in Hyderabad

The Hyderabad police arrested two burqa clad Muslim women after they resorted to vandalism at two religious sites in the city on Tuesday morning.

The two sisters – in their late 20s– first entered the Rock Memorial Church and partially damaged a statue of Mother Mary, hitting it with a stone. When people shouted, they ran to a Durga puja pandal, in the same Chintal Basti area, set up by the locals to celebrate Navaratri.

“They entered the pandal and when the organisers were inattentive started hitting the idol all of a sudden with a wrench (used for pandal assembling) lying there. The face of the lion image got partly damaged. As the worshipers there tried to stop them, the two women managed to flee but were caught by our men,” Rajesh Chandra, DCP (Central Zone) told DH.

The police suspect the well educated, English speaking women – who reside in the nearby Masab Tank area – to be mentally unstable. The DCP said they are withholding their names for now.

“The sisters were giving incompatible replies to our questions. We visited their own, independent but unkempt house where we found her mother, who was also behaving strangely. Their father also is indisposed. Neighbours spoke about their erratic behavior lately,” Chandra said.

The house doors could be opened only after the arrival of the women's brother, who is in a good level of a corporate company in the city. The family was staying in Jeddah till 2018.

“We are probing the matter further to ascertain facts,” the official said, adding that a case was registered under IPC sections 153 A (prompting enmity between different groups), 295 A (malicious acts outraging religious sentiments), 451 (trespassing to commit offense), 504 read with 34 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace etc).

The women in police custody are yet to be produced before a magistrate as of Tuesday evening.

Right-wing activists are accusing the Telangana police of trying to hush up the case by claiming that the duo are mentally unstable.

“It is very clear that religious fanaticism has driven the two women to damage the Durga mata idol, in a planned manner. The police should probe the terror angle, if they are connected to the Popular Front of India (PFI) and from where they have received training in martial arts,” Ravinuthala Sasidhar, joint secretary, VHP Telangana said, demanding stringent punishment for the offenders.

Telangana BJP spokesperson N V Subhash accused the K Chandrashekar Rao government of failing in providing security to the Durga puja pandals, “while it indulges in appeasement of Muslims.”