Kohat warning: Militants rough up transgender guru, spark exodus
The attackers grabbed the guru, beat him up and threatened to kill him if they failed to vacate the area.
File photo of transgendered persons. PHOTO: REUTERS/ FILE
KOHAT:
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.
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.