Pakistan: Transgender community holds major protest against rising attacks

Islamabad, Aug 7 Transgender community of Pakistan on Thursday organised a major protest against the rising number of violent attacks in Pakistan, especially the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Trans Action Alliance President Farzana Riaz and Manzil Foundation Executive Director Madam Arzoo Khan led the protest demonstration outside the Mardan Press Club, highlighting that the police has not been able to protect the community.

Addressing media after the protest, Farzana said that 158 transgender people have been killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2015 and added that not a single case has been awarded justice so far. Firing on transgender community, Pakistan's leading daily Dawn quoted Farzana as saying, was becoming a daily occurrence as the government has failed to provide protection to them.

The community leaders accused the police of considering interaction with transgender people as beneath their dignity. They urged human rights groups to become their voice so that their voice against injustice could become stronger.

Last month, a leading minority rights group had also highlighted the increasing violence against transgender community in Pakistan.

The Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM) mentioned that on the night of July 8, a transgender woman named Taj Muhammad, known as ‘Asady,’ was brutally murdered in her apartment in Peshawar’s Tehkal area. It stated that Asady, aged around 32-33 years, was shot multiple times in the upper body and head in a brutal murder that shook the transgender community to its core.

"This senseless murder is not an isolated incident. It is a tragic part of a relentless trend that shows no signs of stopping. Already, eight transgender individuals have been killed in KP in 2025 alone. Since 2009, the death toll has risen to 158, and over 1,800 cases of violence against transgender people have been reported," read a statement issued by the VOPM.

"These are not just numbers; they represent lives — individuals who, like everyone else, deserve dignity, respect, and protection. Each murder is a painful reminder of the perilous existence transgender persons continue to endure, living in fear, constantly on edge," the statement added.

The minority rights group asserted that Asady’s death is not just another statistic; it is a human life cut short, a "soul extinguished" by senseless violence. "Her family, in the face of unbearable grief, is left to navigate the agony of loss, while the community she once thrived in is left wondering why the violence never ceases. The police registered an FIR on the same day, with Asady’s brother, Bahadur Khan, stepping forward as the complainant," VOPM stated.

The minority rights body pointed out that just a week before Asady's murder, another transgender woman, 'Titli' was killed in Peshawar's Gulbahar area.

"The police's handling of these cases only deepens the mistrust within the transgender community, who feel that justice for them is constantly delayed, if not denied," the VOPM emphasised. The minority rights body asserted that "these killings are not isolated incidents; they are part of a growing epidemic of hate and intolerance directed at a community that is already marginalised and voiceless in many ways".

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