A trans woman was severely injured reportedly after being assaulted by unidentified men in Karachi’s upscale locality of Defence Housing Authority (DHA).
Hina Baloch, an activist working with an NGO committed to the safety of transgender people in Pakistan Gender Interactive Alliance (GIA), shared on social media that a trans woman, identified as Shila, was subjected to “extreme physical violence” at Agha Khan Signal Road DHA.
While sharing the video of the injured trans woman, the rights activist said the suspects had fled the scene after assaulting Shila.
“She was taken to the Jinnah Hospital for first aid treatment, ” she added.
Baloch also criticised DHA authorities for inaction over growing discrimination towards the transgender community from the area residents.
“This is not new, KS community members in DHA Karachi are already in hot waters for quite some time now, they’re bn harassed and often subjected to brutal violence by powerful & rich elite class men and they simply get away with it without any accountability. This is unacceptable,” she said.
In its annual report, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the growing hostility towards the transgender community in Pakistan and said that at least 12 trans persons were murdered in 2022 in an “unprecedented blow to the human rights situation of minorities in the country”.
The report, titled: “State of Human Rights in 2022”, notes that Pakistan took a “U-turn on the rights of transgender people” in 2022 which is contrary to the country’s earlier stance when it introduced the progressive federal 2018 Act that provides for the protection of the rights of transgender people.
, according to an activist from Gender Interactive Alliance (GIA), an NGO working for the safety of transgender people in Pakistan.){kind=link}