Agra: Mumbai woman accuses CISF staff of manhandling her at Taj Mahal

AGRA: A woman tourist from Mumbai alleged that she was manhandled by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at Taj Mahal on Thursday while she tried to offer “dua” (a form of prayer) inside the main mausoleum in front of the tombs of Mughal emperor

Shah Jahan

and his wife Mumtaz.


The incident took place around 11:30am when Shaheen Khan, 33, her mother Shakirunnisa, 65, and elder brother Istekhar, 36, entered the Taj Mahal’s main mausoleum complex. Shakirunnisa reportedly lifted her hands and started offering prayers in front of the graves when the CISF personnel on duty there objected to her religious act and allegedly pushed her to move forward.

Confirming that heated arguments between a CISF employee and a woman tourist took place, CISF commandant at Taj Mahal, Braj Bhushan, on Friday, said that though the tourist did not approach him, he has warned the constable. He admitted that courtesy is necessary and the staff has to avoid such kind of inadvertent incidents. Bhushan said that the staff will be more careful in future to “ensure not to hurt the religious sentiments of tourists”.

Shakirunnisa’s daughter Shaheen told TOI that when she objected to the CISF staff’s behaviour and asked him not to push an elderly woman, the constable was rude to her too and allegedly mocked her “religious identity” by saying that “do all this ‘dua’ at home, not here”. She tweeted about the incident on the same day with a photograph of the CISF personnel.

Shaheen also said that when her brother confronted the constable, he was allegedly abused and misbehaved with. “We went there for memories but our trip was ruined by this incident,” she said.

“We were not aware that we cannot offer prayers at the tombs of Taj Mahal as this was our first visit. We are used to offering prayers at graves,” she said, adding that instead of treating the tourists politely, the constable misbehaved and pushed them. “It was a bad experience and I hope that such incidents do not occur with other tourists coming from across the world to the monument.”

Before tweeting, Shaheen contacted the UP police, too, but no one responded to her properly, she claimed. She further said that as she was on a one-day tour and had to visit Fatehpur Sikri on the same day, she could not contact any official personally. In fact, she registered her complaint on social media through Twitter but no official has reportedly responded to it yet.

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