Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The funeral of the transgender activist Alisha was publically held and attended by many people here on Friday.

Twenty-five-year old Alisha died Wednesday, four days after being shot eight times on May 21 allegedly by two displeased customers at the province’s biggest and busiest Lady Reading Hospital on Wednesday due to negligence of the hospital staff.

It was the first time in history of the province that funeral of a transvestite took place in public. Farzana, the head of the TransAction Alliance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA told media that their community received encouraging support and sympathy by the public over the death of a transgender.

“We were able to hold the funeral of a transvestite publicly for the first time in KP. A large number of people showed sympathy with our transgender community by attending Alisha’s funeral and offering fateha,” he said.

A number of known political figures and human rights activists attended the funeral. These included Awami National Party General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain, National Party Provincial President Mukhtar Bacha, Noor Zaman Khattak, Director Human Rights Directorate Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were among those who attended the funeral.

Qamar Naseem of the Blue Veins organization working for the empowerment of the transgender community arranged the funeral to take place at his residence.

Recent years have seen an increase in violence against the transgenders in KP as at least four other eunuchs were subjected to violence in the recent months. Though many incidents of violence go unheard of, so far, 17 cases of violence and harassment have been reported in 2016.

The insecurity has forced the community to put forward a number of demands with the provincial government, including shelter, inclusion of names to receive Zakat, Ushar and other welfare schemes of the Social Welfare Department.

They also seek police protection, issuance of Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC), provision of special wards in government hospitals, share in inheritance and two percent quota in government jobs.

Following the death of Alisha, Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information and Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani met the representatives of the transgender community and pledged that the provincial government would allocate funds for welfare of the transgender community in the upcoming provincial budget.

He also assured the community that measures will be taken to establish a separate ward at LRH to offer treatment to transgender patients.

Furthermore, Senior Superintendent of Police Abbas Majeed Marwat also met the representatives of TransAction Alliance after the death of Alisha and reassured full protection to the community against violence and harassment.