In India the extremist Hindu party the Shiv Sena on Tuesday demanded a ban on burqa, calling the Muslim veil a threat to security interests. In an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamna, the party said criminals were using the burqa to commit crimes, an Indian television channel reported. It cited how a new born was stolen from the VN Desai Hospital here, and how CCTV footage showed a 5.2 feet tall burqa clad person committing the crime.
Earlier, a burqa clad person stole a four-day-old infant from the Lokmanya Tilak Hospital in Sion. In Mumbai, many thousands of women roam around in the burqa, even in public hospitals, but it is not possible to lift the veil of each woman and check their antecedents. If a security personnel did that, then it led to protests, it said. The edit contended that Islam has nothing to do with the burqa and that India should ban the veil.