Three men arrested in stabbing deaths of two trans women in Pakistan

Three men are under arrest in Pakistan in connection with the stabbing murders of two transgender women. Police have obtained confessions from the suspects, who admitted they were part of a criminal gang targeting trans people, AAJ News reports.

The two women were slain with daggers at their home in Mardan, a city in the culturally conservative northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Sunday. A third transgender woman was present at the house during the killings but was able to hide and escape harm.

The three men were arrested Tuesday. Earlier today, the trio appeared at a press conference with district police chief Zahur Babar Afridi, handcuffed and wearing hoods to conceal their identities. Afridi told reporters the three men confessed to the murders, but that authorities were still investigating a potential motive for the crime.

Despite Afridi’s statement at the news conference that investigators are still looking for a motive, AAJ News reports that the trio confessed to being part of an organized crime gang that targeted transgender individuals.

The attacks highlight the danger faced by the transgender community in the Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan. Transgender people are often slain in so-called honor killings by relatives who feel the trans person has brought disgrace to their family by revealing their true gender identity.

Mahi Gula, who works with an nongovernmental organization supporting the local transgender community, told Radio Free Europe his group’s research shows 122 trans people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been killed since 2009, but there have been zero convictions.

Pakistan remains hostile to the LGBTQ+ community overall. Same-sex sexual relations are illegal in the nation and punishable by up to two years in prison. Marriage equality is not recognized.

In 2020, the government announced a crackdown on apps like Grindr, Tinder, Tagged, Skout, and SayHi for violating the country’s moral code.

In June of this year, a 75-year-old man was sent to a psychiatric hospital after he tried to open a gay club in Osama Bin Laden’s compound town. Preetum Giani applied to open the Lorenzo Gay Club in Abbottabad in northern Pakistan, 24 News HD reported in May. The city is best known as the location of the compound where terrorist Osama Bin Laden spent his final days before he was killed by U.S. forces in 2011.

In his application, Giani said he envisioned a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community to exercise the “basic human right of free association, enshrined in the country’s constitution.” He said the club would permit no form of gay or straight sex but would tolerate kissing.

The application, which generated a backlash on social media and among residents, was quickly rejected by the local authorities. Giani was subsequently detained by authorities and sent to a psychiatric hospital.