MINGORA: A minor transgender person was badly beaten in Mingora, the main city of Swat and then the attacker managed to escape from the site.
The volunteers of a nearby welfare organization were the first ones to come to the rescue of the victim and they provided first medical aid before taking the victim to Saidu Sharif Hospital for further treatment. According to the medical team, the victim had dents in teeth, a broken spine, and the possibility of a permanent side effect in the body. But, as per the latest update from the hospital, the victim’s condition is stable, and he is under treatment.
After the occurrence of the event, District Police Officer of Swat, Muhammad Omar Khan, took notice of a case and a moment later ordered the SHO of Mingora, Habib Syed, to be on the spot and take efficient action there.
Followed by the police who acted without any delay, the suspect, Zeeshan, was apprehended. He is the person from Akhtarabad Banr who was arrested in the local police action. He is facing the accusation of filing a case against him.
Moeen Fayyaz, the police spokesperson, disclosed that the person who was arrested is a resident of Mardan.
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The tragic occurrence has sparked anger not only among the public and those supporting the cause of transgender rights but also among the latter. The transgender community has urged the authorities to make the offender a fateful victim and to take measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
Attacks on Transgender individuals
The head of the Transgender Community Organization, Farzana Riaz, has claimed that a minimum of 195 transgender people are killed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, and the scale of killing is not less than that of an organized crime incident.
During the press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, alongside Vice President Mahi Gul and other members, Farzana Riaz accused local police of being in league with extortionists and of showing bias against the transgender community. She mentioned that despite numerous cases pending in courts, the offenders involved in kidnapping, extortion, and murder of the transgender community have not been arrested.
She charged that police in connivance with local government officials and community leaders conduct raids at the homes of transgender people, beat them, and issue illegal expulsion notices that force them to leave the area.
“We have knocked on every door for justice, but were turned away everywhere,” Farzana Riaz said. “The Peshawar High Court has finally heard our plea and sought responses from the KP Inspector General and the Capital City Police Chief.”
She informed that during the court hearing today, no official response was submitted by the police, prompting the court to grant an extension until November 4 to submit their reply.
Farzana Riaz demanded the immediate cessation of harassment and forced displacements of transgender people in Swabi, Nowshera, Charsadda, and other districts. “We are being treated like the enemies of the state and not like the citizens of Pakistan,” she expressed her grief.
She narrated the stories of the transgender people where, one of them was Naseema from Swabi who got an eviction notice within 15 days, was subjected to violence, and subsequently forced out of their district. Similar incidents have been reported in Charsadda, Swari, Haripur, Batkhela, Buner, and Nowshera, she added.
Moreover, she criticised the government’s performance in the matter of transgender patients’ separate hospital beds in the health system, saying that it was an old promise of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government that still had not materialized after six years.
Farzana Riaz called upon the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police to urgently take cognizance of the matter. “We are part of this society and should be given the same rights and respect as everyone else,” she underlined.
