Pune jewellers seek ban on veiled women

MUMBAI: Women wearing the burqa and other face-concealing veils could be banned from jewellery stores in Pune after a spate of thefts involving burqa-clad customers, jewellers said on Thursday.   

More than a dozen thefts have occurred in jewellery shops in Pune in the past two months, with at least three cases of women wearing burqas spotted by surveillance cameras as they stole gold ornaments.   

"Police could not find any clue about the women's identity because their faces were covered," Fatehchand Ranka, head of the Maharashtra Jewellers' Association, told reporters.   

Pune's jewellers, who deny targeting any religion, say they have written to the authorities asking for permission to stop serving customers who refuse to show their faces to surveillance cameras from January 1.   

But the move has angered a section of the Muslim community which says the attempt to profile customers on the basis of their attire is an attack on their freedom of religion.   

"It's up to a Muslim woman to decide if she wants to shop in a burqa," said Naseem Siddique, head of Maharashtra's minority communities panel.   

"Next they will say they will not allow a Sikh in a turban because he could be hiding a pistol under it."   

But a council of powerful Islamic clerics said the jewellers had a right to defend their business.   

"They are sustaining losses. Moreover, they have said it is not about burqas alone but veils of all sorts," said Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi, secretary of the All-India Ulama Council.