4 men and a woman wearing burqas robbed a house after entering it claiming to be acquaintances in Tamil Nadu. Ameer, Meeran, Raheem, Mohideen, Maideen and two others were booked after one of them was caught by the public as they were trying to escape.
5 people wearing burqas entered the house of one Umar Sahib in Nagercoil, Kanyakumari on May 26. Umar was alone in the house as his wife and daughter had gone to a hospital nearby. When he questioned who burqa-clad people were, they claimed to be acquaintances and entered the house forcibly. Two of them suddenly pulled out a gun and a sickle while the other two tied Umar to a chair.
They robbed the 20 sovereign gold jewellery from his house and just as they tried to escape, Umar’s wife and daughter returned from the hospital. They alerted the neighbours about the robbery but the thieves had already run away. However, one of them, Raheem, was caught by the neighbours and handed over to the police.
From the details he divulged, other robbers Ameer, Meeran, Mohideen, Maideen, Charles and Gowri were booked. But only Raheem, Ameer and Gowri have been arrested so far and 10 sovereign gold has been retrieved. Raheem was released from prison only a few days ago and is a history-sheeter.
Raheem, Ameer and Charles wanted to become rich easily and came to the conclusion that robbery was the easiest way. As it would be difficult to enter houses as men, even while wearing burqas, Ameer suggested that they take a woman along. He lured Gowri, a poor single mother, by promising to give Rs 3000. Gowri earned her livelihood as a visa agent and got introduced to Ameer when he approached her for help.
Ameer took advantage of her poor economic condition and convinced her to join them in the robbery attempt. After refusing initially, Gowri relented due to her situation in the end. It appears to be a case of grooming jihad, but media reports do not offer any information about their relationship except that “they were very friendly”.
Burqa has become a convenient attire for committing crimes and unluckily Muslims themselves have fallen victim to it in this incident. But it is becoming a security threat as burqa is used to hide one’s identity while committing crimes.
January 2023 – 4 burqa-clad Muslim women were caught supplying ganja to prisoners in Azamgarh.
October 2022 – a woman was caught shoplifting clothes at a retail shop in Mangaluru.
April 2022 – A burqa clad woman was arrested for hurling a petrol bomb at a CRPF bunker in Kashmir.
April 2022 – Burqa clad women were caught on CCTV stealing expensive lehengas worth Rs 85K from a reputed shop of Muzaffarnagar, UP owned by Sanjay Batla under the pretext of Eid shopping. A similar burqa gang was arrested and expensive jewellery was recovered just recently, police had said at the time.
March 2022 – one Mohammed Sohail used burqa to disguise himself as a woman and was caught molesting girls in Bijnore, UP
Sept 2021 – Three women clad in burqa – Bibijaan, Hussainabi and Jaithumbi – arrived in a Jos Alukkas jewellery shop in Puttur, Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka and stole gold worth Rs. 2.6L.
Dec 12, 2020 – Three women wearing a burqa robbed a jewellery store at the Kunte Chowk in Sadashiv Peth, Pune. Over the past month, Pune Police said they had arrested nine people, including seven women, from three different groups for committing thefts at various shops while wearing burqas and stolen valuables were recovered from them. The accused were from Aurangabad, Malegaon and Pune, and operating separately but had a similar modus operandi of wearing a burqa to steal valuables from different shops, police said.
Dec 14, 2020 – Burqa-clad women used children to steal jewellery worth Rs. 12 lakhs out of Shringar jewellers in Bareli town, Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh. Previously, a similar robbery of jewellery worth Rs. 2 lakhs was carried out by 4 burqa-clad women in Alankar jewellers of the same town.
Oct 2020 – A gang of four burkha-clad women from Malegaon were arrested for stealing gold jewellery from shops in Mumbai. Sajada alias Bashir Ansari (30), Nazia Shaikh (50), Nasreen Shaikh (50) and Yasmin Khan (35) had committed similar crimes in Kurla, Bhandup, Mumbra, Nashik and Hyderabad, the police said.
Sept 2017 – Three burqa-clad women stole gold jewellery worth lakhs from Chakabhai Jewellers in Vadodara, Gujarat.
Aug 2019 – Two bura-clad women attempted to steal tubs of baby formula and other supermarket items in the UK.
France – An undated video shows burqa-clad women being caught shoplifting a staggering amount of chocolates they had managed to hide under their black robes.
