File photo of transgendered persons. PHOTO: REUTERS/ FILE
A senior member of the transgender community was tortured and threatened at the hands of militants in the southern Kohat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday.
A police official said that three unidentified attackers entered a market in the Tirah Adda area of the region and barged inside a balakhana (den), where five transgendered persons along with their ‘guru’ resided.
The attackers grabbed the guru, identified as Arif alias Arifa Jan, and beat him up and threatened to kill him if they failed to vacate the area.
The official added that after the incident all members of the transgender community residing in the area fled to an undisclosed location.
The owner of the market, Syed Jamal, said that since no one in the area was willing to provide shelter to the transgendered persons; therefore, he stepped in and accommodated them in his building.
He recalled that the assailants sent him a letter demanding that his tenants be thrown out within a week. Jamal claimed that the letter was dispatched by the TTP Darra Adam Khel chapter.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2013.
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@Akhtartak:
Please don't make such statements ! Even if half of what you predict comes true, India is done for. Let everybody stay put where they are - no need to make rash travel plans. You are giving everyone nightmares !
@Tinkerbell Karachi: We must honour the most excellent ghairat code of pakhtoon khwa however bestial.
@Tinkerbell Karachi: I think your analysis is bit biased. Whoever told u about Bangash as non-muslims is mis informed. What do you mean by colour of you own people? Do we not have many jokes about the Pathans, dont we laugh at such stuff, dont we make fun them, their appearance, their Urdu language skills, their simplicity, their straightforwardness. The point I want to make is that its a two way thing. As far as helping others is concerned, it is this part of the country that is helping each other and no one else from your country bothers to share with them their grief.
Its not about this region rather the whole country is in mess, and the mindset at large is deteriorated and rotten, what part of your country is most peaceful in terms of ethnic, sectarian divide?
"Women without a Burqa " thats not how u measure people's mindset? you have to talk to them, you have to understand them, may I ask Did anyone harm you? Did anyone point fingers towards your dressing, your work, your appearance.
And last but not least, who made all this mess, who made the lives of these poeople a mess, who is training them for Jihad, who is sponsoring them, who is benefitting?
Think with a cold mind... and you will get all answers...
It's an illiterate & immoral society that discriminates and MOCKS not only Transgenders but persons with one legs or without legs and with one eye or without eyes and call them with different derogatory names such as KHUSRAS, LANGRA/LULA & ANNA respectively. What happens then that these persons with such disabilities find very difficult to absorb themselves in the main stream. I suggest calling names as above must be criminalized by law. No religion on earth hates or mocks a human.
@Chulbul Pandey:
Yes, yes.. thanks for the correction.
Brave soldiers of Islam...
@BruteForce: Bhima, one of the 5 main characters of the epic Mahabharata, if I remember my mythology correctly, poses as one. BruteForce ji, you might have got this one wrong. it was not Bhima. It was Arjun, the great master of archery, who had to live as transgender for one year due to a curse :)
@Akhtartak: Why? Iam a transgender but i'll never go to india. . Question of india never even arises. .i'll fight for my rights. I love pakistan.
One day all pakistan would have emigrated to india
Purification of Pakistan continues. Two nation theory may soon become two sect theory.
extremely sad!
So, the Taliban think that transgenders just like women are not humans?
Tragic.
And I bet anything that this isn't the first time Taliban have harassed transgenders. The matter gets very little coverage.
They have a right to live and be treated as other human beings.
Land of pure is only for perfect Muslims as per the interpretation of TTP Islam.
Transponders have always found a place in Indian society, even before Pakistan was formed. Bhima, one of the 5 main characters of the epic Mahabharata, if I remember my mythology correctly, poses as one.
I don't really know if they have a place in Islamic societies. Even though they face discrimination and cruelty in India, they do enjoy a place in the society.
I would prefer these Transgenders over Talibans any day.
Hindus, Ahmedis, Shias, Christians, Hazaras, Baluch, Mohajirs, and now even transgenders. Anyone else left? Sickness and perversion to the extreme.
And milion men army is smoking cigars,playing bridge,golf and building property.Pakistan you are a strange country.So much resiliance!!
Muslims blame Jews and So called NeoCons for most of their miseries but they dont know that are themselves to blame for most of the mess but it is easy to blame someone rather than rectifying your own mistakes. Similarly I think blaming everything squarely on Taliban that they did it is another ScapeGoat while failing to address the Conservatism and taboo topics in our society that are actually responsible for this intolerance in the first place.
lol, lol, lol... Seems like TTP is governing Pakistan and Security forces are supporting them....