Fact Check: Are Pakistani parents putting padlocks on daughters’ graves to prevent rape?

Last week, a shocking image of a padlocked grave with a metal grate went viral on social media and several news reports as well. At the time, the reports claimed the grave was in Pakistan and the lock was the result of an alleged increase in necrophilia cases in the country.

The claim suggested that the image showed how parents in Pakistan are using locks to secure the graves of their daughters and prevent the corpse from getting raped.

However, the claim is false. According to Indian fact-checker Mohammed Zubair, the viral photo isn’t from Pakistan but from Hyderabad city in India. A fact check piece written by Zubair and Shinjine Majumder reveals the image is actually from a cemetery located opposite Masjid E Salar Mulk, a mosque in Madannapet, Hyderabad.

Alt News spoke to a local resident who informed the grave belonged to a woman who had passed away in her seventies, the fact check piece elaborated. The metal grate and padlock were installed to prevent the grave from being reopened to put another corpse inside.

A necrophilia case was reported in 2011 in Pakistan when grave keeper Muhammad Rizwan from Karachi was detained after confessing to raping more than 45 corpses of different women.