LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) today replaced one of its security guards who prevented six burqa-clad women from boarding a metro train in Lucknow on Monday.
The LMRC also directed its security agency to sensitize the guards properly before deploying them at metro stations in the city.
The LMRC’s action comes after an investigation found the security guards guilty of the incident. The security guards deployed at Mawaiyya metro station had allegedly asked the Muslim women to take off their burqas before boarding the train. Allegedly no female guards were present at the security check cabin.
The incident had come to light when Maaz Mohammad, who was flanking the women, lodged a written complaint with LMRC addressing Managing Director Kumar Keshav, narrating the series of events.
As per Maaz Mohammad's complaint, when he, along with the women of his family, was about to board the Metro train from Mavaiayya metro station to Alambagh metro station, the male guards on duty stopped the women who were in burqa. They insisted that the women accompanying Maaz Mohammad should take off their burqa before boarding the train. “The ladies were ready to take off the burqa in female enclosure. There was no female security personnel but the male guards were adamant and insisted on getting burqa off in front of them,” wrote Mohammad. The male guards then refused to allow the group to board the Metro.
Consequently, Mohammad dropped the idea of taking the train and went back to return the tickets he had purchased. Seeking stern action against the guards, Mohammad, in his letter, also asked the LMRC MD, if the metal detectors installed at the metro station were not sufficient for a security check.
This incident, the first of its kind, since the LMRC started its operations in 2017.
Reacting to the incident, CSC of LMRC, UC Srivastava claimed that LMRC had received the complaint and it was corroborated by the CCTV footage. Srivastava claimed that the incident had come to the knowledge of authorities and a probe was ordered into the issue. He assured of stern action against the guilty.