At the police station, two policemen
proceeded to ‘teach them a lesson’ for spreading obscenity, said Shehzadi, another transgender alleging torture. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE
HARIPUR: Around five transgenders were allegedly subjected to physical and mental torture at the hands of the police after being implicated in a fabricated case, claimed Haripur Shemale Association President Saima Shaukat on Thursday.
Speaking to the media, Shaukat threatened the association would observe a hunger strike after Muharram if the police continued to behave with them in the same way. She maintained a group of five transgenders belonging to the association was asleep at their house in Bazaar Lohara a night earlier when police knocked on the door and took them to the city police station.
“They put us in the police van as if we were terrorists,” said Bela, one of the victims of the alleged torture. Once at the police station, two policemen proceeded to ‘teach them a lesson’ for spreading obscenity, said Shehzadi, another transgender alleging torture. She claimed the policemen beat them with bamboo sticks, leaving marks on their bodies.
“They detained us there the whole night and used abusive language,” said Rifati, who also maintained she was physically abused in custody. Another transgender, Danish said the police registered a criminal case against them under Section 294 of the Pakistan Penal Code and produced them in the court of the judicial magistrate the next morning. The magistrate then imposed a nominal fine on them before letting them go, saying they were not guilty of spreading obscenity.
Condemning the detention, Saima Shaukat said the police had wrongly implicated them as they had committed no crimes. She threatened to launch a protest against the local police, claiming they were only putting it off in light of Muharram.
When approached for comments, City police SHO Amjad Khan refuted the allegations of torture, saying the transgenders were picked up after intelligence reports indicated their involvement in spreading obscenity, including homosexuality. He added some of their ‘customers’ escaped when the police carried out the raid.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 8th,2013.
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The actions of the police deserve full condemnation if true and a civil lawsuit