A transgender woman has been brutally murdered after an argument over £6
Trans activists demonstrate in Peshawar, Pakistan (A.MAJEED/AFP/Getty)
A transgender woman has been shot dead because she didn’t have change for £6.
The victim was one of two transgender women invited to dance at a wedding in Kotkay, in northern Pakistan.
Police said that she was handed a 1,000 rupee note – about £6 – by a man who asked for change so he could shower the trans dancers with money during the party.
(ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty)
She told the man that she had no change for him – so he shot her in the head.
She is the 57th trans person to be killed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region in the last three years.
The victim’s fellow dancer at the wedding, Kismat Khan, told Pakistani news outlet DawnNews that the alleged murderer had fired his gun twice in the air before taking aim.
(ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty)
She said they had been invited to perform at the wedding by a friend of the accused.
“We both hail from Kehal area of Abbottabad and settled down in Mansehra to earn a livelihood through dancing,” added Khan.
Trans activists reportedly took to the streets in protest of the cold-blooded killing, blocking roads to demand that the accused was arrested.
One leading advocate, Maria Khan, said: “Our community members are being killed without any reason in the entire province, but the police have failed to protect us.
(A.MAJEED/AFP/Getty)
“Who will provide us security? People kill us if we don’t meet their immoral demands.”
Rab Nawaz, a police officer in Mansehra, said the suspect had a history of murder, having killed his uncle.
He promised that “the accused will soon be arrested.”
Human Rights Watch called the murder a “senseless attack” which showed “how cheap these lives are considered.”
(ARIF ALI/AFP/Getty)
The group added: “Not only has the K-P government failed to protect its transgender citizens, it has also failed to hold perpetrators accountable.”
Pakistan had made numerous moves to give trans people a better quality of life, but has not been able to stop transphobic violence.
The country allows for trans people to obtain a ‘third gender’ passport.
Transgender people can also be legally recognised as their gender without medical approval.
(Trans Action Pakistan/Facebook)
In February, 40 trans people joined the Pakistan Boy Scouts Association in a landmark move.
And the country welcomed its first transgender news anchor, Marvia Malik, onto their screens in March.
Malik said that she was “overwhelmed” by the support she received after her TV debut.
(Kohenoor News)
However, there is growing concern over the government’s response to violence directed at the trans community.
In the last month alone, a trans woman named Chutki was killed while travelling in an auto-rickshaw in Peshawar, and another trans woman, Chitrali, was stabbed when she resisted a kidnapping attempt.
