Two transgender Pakistanis tortured to death by Saudi Police

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, men dressing up as women in public, is a punishable offense. However, the Saudi police took matters to a new level by torturing two transgender persons to death.

Both the victims were Pakistani nationals and belonged to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) area. They were arrested from Riyadh along with thirty-five other transgender people for cross-dressing.

According to the details of the incident provided, the Saudi police got a tip-off and raided a guest house where a ‘Guru Chela Chalan’ gathering, which is a formal meeting of transgender people in which they choose their leader and students, was taking place. The police arrested all of the attendees and put them behind bars.

The victims have been identified as Amna, 35 and Meeno, 26. Amna belonged to Mingora while Meeno was from Peshawar. The police allegedly packed them in sacks and thrashed them with sticks in prison. Not being able to sustain the injuries, both the victims died.

“Majority of the arrested, belong to K-P and the others from other cities of Pakistan. Torturing humans after throwing them into bags and beating them with sticks is inhumane,” said Qamar Naseem, a transgender rights activist.

Out of the 35 transgender people arrested, 11 were released after paying a fine of 150,000 riyals, 22 are still in police custody, Naseem added.

”No one is there to save them as the life of a transgender is not of any value to anyone, not even for our own government,” he lamented.

Naseem said that the National Commission for Human Rights had been contacted and they are awaiting their response. Meanwhile, he also appealed to the Pakistani government to help its trapped citizens.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=54566

Posted by fatimaarshad on Mar 2 2017. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.