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This article contains descriptions of fatal violence against transgender women.
Multiple arrests have been made after two transgender women were stabbed to death in their home in Northwest Pakistan this week, amid what advocates say is a concerning rise in anti-trans violence in the region.
The attack occurred Sunday night in the city of Mardan, police chief police chief Fahim Khan told the Associated Press earlier this week. At least two attackers entered the victims’ home and killed them with daggers before fleeing the scene, he said.
Farzana Jan, president of local activist group Trans Action, earlier this week promised rallies and protests if no arrests were made. “We have given a three-day deadline to the police for arresting those behind the latest killings in Mardan,” she told the Associated Press earlier this week, adding that at least nine other trans people in Pakistan have been shot and killed in 2024. “We will stage rallies if the killers of two members of our community are not arrested.”
Police then arrested three men on Wednesday, saying all three had confessed to the killings, but without providing additional information regarding the alleged killers’ motives.
Little is publicly known about the two victims, but the Pakistani news outlet Dawn reported Tuesday that the two were known in their community as Salmanu and Nazik. An unnamed trans advocate told the outlet that other trans people were also in the house during the attack, and hid in a bathroom for safety. Both victims were reportedly buried in a nearby cemetery.
Although Pakistan has at times led the world in enshrining trans people’s legal rights, advocates warn that such violence against trans people is becoming more commonplace. Legislators passed the Protection of Rights Act in 2018, allowing Pakistani trans people to obtain legal documents and identification matching their lived gender; the law also prohibited discrimination in schools and workplaces based on gender identity. But since then, conservatives and religious leaders have condemned that legislation as anti-Islam.
Advocates say there have been at least 267 cases of anti-trans violence in Pakistan since 2019 — only one of which eventually led to a conviction. Last year, Marvia Malik, the country’s first out trans newscaster, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by several gunmen while walking home.
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