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Street protests in Pakistan after shooting of transgender activist
The latest shooting of a transgender activist has triggered angry street protests in Pakistan, where officials are accused of turning a blind eye to a surge in violence against the marginalised community.
Kashi, a transgender woman, was shot multiple times at her home in Mansehra in northern Pakistan on Sunday by three male intruders. She was allegedly attacked after rejecting the men’s sexual advances.
The assault follows the death 19 days ago of fellow transgender activist Alesha, who was shot and allegedly deprived of medical treatment by staff in a Peshawar hospital.
It has fuelled fears that the group is being increasingly targeted for violence and discrimination in Pakistan.
On Monday, dozens of protesters in Mansehra chanted slogans against police as well as the federal and provincial governments, and demanded the arrest of Kashi’s three attackers, who have fled.
Waqaz Aziz, president of Lahore-based NGO Centre for Restoration of Human Dignity, said the march would be followed by another in Lahore on Tuesday, with around 200 more demonstrators expected to attend.
“These attacks never used to happen, but in the past few months they have become more and more frequent,” said Mr Aziz.
Campaigners claimed that police had failed to act upon earlier warnings of threats made against Kanshi, and had even refused to respond to an emergency call after the shooting.
“Maria [a friend of Kashi] called the police but police refused to come and said they didn’t have time for a transgender woman, a sinner,” said Uzma Yaqoob of Forum for Dignity Initiatives, a Pakistani NGO.
Kashi has now been discharged from hospital and is recovering with her family.
Pakistan’s minorities, including Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, Shia Muslims and women, are experiencing increasing violence.
But transgenders appear to be facing some of the worst attacks. Activists say 45 transgender people have been killed in the northern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) region in the past two years.
Although transgender women are considered good luck in Pakistan and are often invited to dance at weddings, many are forced by poverty to work in the sex trade, where they receive little protection from authorities.
“We are telling over and over again that there is an organised criminal gang in KP involved in the sexual and commercial exploitation of transgenders but police do not seem to be interested,” wrote Trans Action Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an activist network, on Facebook.
Kamran Arif, vice-president of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, blamed Pakistan’s growing intolerance on a proliferation of madrassas or religious schools that adhere to the strict Wahhabi sect of Islam.
Mr Arif told AP: ”They have produced an army of young men with very intolerant views."