Daily Times

KARACHI: A transgender was killed by unidentified armed men in DHA’s Shahbaz Commercial area Phase VI on Wednesday.

The incident took place on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday when a group of transgenders comprised on at least four members were presented at Shahbaz Commercial as per routine.

The deceased was away from his home since last ten to twelve years, her dead body was handed over to her parents who did the funeral and burial.

Chanda was shot dead in Defence’s Shahbaz Commercial area when unidentified men riding a SUV car with tinted glasses opened fire on a number of transgender persons standing in the street, the fellow transgenders, in their statements have informed police.

One of the fellows of the deceased transgender said the motorists first threw eggs on them and drove away. “The suspects then returned after a while and opened fire on us. We ran from there but Chanda was hit by bullets,” they said.

The victim’s fellows are in the state of fear following the incident. They called the police and the ambulance and shifted her to the hospital. “Before we could shift her to the hospital, she had died,” explained another fellow transgender Sajjad. “This was a horrifying incident.

The deceased transgender, however, later identified as 25-year-old Chanda , was shot once in her head and died at the spot. Her body was shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where she was pronounced dead.

Chanda belonged to a middle class family residing in Korangi No. 2.5 but she was not living with her family from the last few years. “We received a phone call from the police midnight. The policeman informed us that one of our family members has been shot dead. She has been away from home from the past eight to ten years. We have done her funerals and are not in a mood to discuss this matter further,” narrated the father of a victim Anwar Masih.

The police have yet to ascertain the actual motive behind the killing, and an investigation to find the culprits is underway. “We believed that the fellow transgenders are trying to hide the actual facts,” said Darakshan SHO Aurangzeb Khattab. “The issue was not only egg throwing and the begging but there was something more which they are hiding.” The officer said that it seems that all the transgenders who were available at that time knew the culprits as they might have been met them earlier but it will take some time as the investigation was in preliminary level. “We are now trying to obtain the CCTV footages as well as recording the witness accounts,” the officer explained.

He said that the empty shells of the pistol used in the incident have been sent to the forensic division, adding that the police was also trying to get the registration number of the SUV used in the incident to help in tracing and arresting the culprits.

The police, however, have registered an FIR No. 440/17 under Section 302 against unidentified persons on the complained of Anwar Masih while further investigation was underway.

Published in Daily Times, August 31^st 2017.