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The killings happened Sunday night in Mardan, a city in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province, local police chief Fahim Khan said. He
said the motive behind the murders was unclear and officers are
still investigating.
Transgender people are often subjected to harassment, abuse and
attacks in Muslim-majority Pakistan. They are also among the
victims of so-called honor killings carried out by relatives to
punish perceived sexual transgressions.
Farzana Jan, President of the Trans Action rights group in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said another nine trans people have been
killed in gun attacks in the province since January.
She said none of the attackers involved in the previous cases
had been brought to justice, mainly because families pardoned
the attackers or prosecutors did not pursue the cases seriously.
The transgender community has threated to protest if the
attackers are not arrested.
“We have given a three-day deadline to the police for arresting
those behind the latest killings in Mardan,” Jan said. “We will
stage rallies if the killers of two members of our community are
not arrested,” she said.
There are no exact figures about the number of trans people in
Pakistan, but Jan estimated that about 75,000 live in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa.
Mardan is located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of
Peshawar.
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