LAHORE – In a cold-blooded murder, a transgender’s throat was slit and stabbed to death on Friday at her residence in Lahore’s Bhatta Chowk.
Muskan, 25, had gone missing on Friday and her dead body remained unnoticed for 1 day at her home’s bathroom until her friends found it out on Saturday.
Muskan is the second victim of such a brutal murder engulfed in mystery, in 15 days.
Her friends said that she died due to extreme exsanguination after her throat was slit with a knife.
An FIR has also been registered in Kot Lakhpat’s police station by her family.
Talking to Daily Pakistan, Lahore-based transgender rights activist Neeli Rana said the deceased did not have any enmity or dispute with anyone. “She didn’t have any boyfriend and mostly relied on wedding dances as her income,” Neeli said.
Neeli said it is unfortunate that the transgender community is suffering from such extreme indifference and insensitivity from society. “Our own boyfriends kill us,” Neeli lamented when asked about the major reasons behind such incidents.
Transgender rights activist Kami Sid told Daily Pakistan that such incidents will not end unless there is a general sense of respect and acceptance for the community. “Assuring our rights and protection is more important than counting us in a census. It is more important that people are severely punished so that our lives are not taken for granted, rest of the things are secondary,” Kami said.
She went on to say that so-called NGO’s are not addressing the real issues and are busy in collecting money. “We don’t need sympathy, we want equity and respect,” Kami added.
Most of the Pakistani transgender people, numbering approximately 500,000, rely on wedding dances as their main source of income.
