ISLAMABAD    -  The Swat police have asked the non-local transgender people to leave the Mingora city of Swat because of their alleged loathsome activities.

While addressing a meeting of locals at Mingora police station a couple of days back, DSP Circle Zahir Shah had clearly asked the transgenders living in Swat to quit the city as soon as possible. He further said that the presence of transgenders in the city was a cause of embarrassment for the locals, and they were not ready to tolerate their presence in the city anymore. Shah can be clearly heard in a video clip telling the transgenders living in Swat not to wear ladies’ garments anymore as the local people had shown their reservations over their dressing. He said that there were almost 89 transgenders living in Mingora, of whom 60 were outsiders. When The Nation contacted DSP Zahir Shah over the issue, he, however, denied what he had said earlier at a meeting held at the police station of Mingora.

The video in which the DSP can be seen asking the non-local transgender people in Pashtu language to leave Swat is available with The Nation.

“Our movement has been restricted as we are not allowed to leave our homes,” said Payal, a transgender hailing from Swat, while talking to The Nation. She revealed that last night she and members of her community were heading for a programme somewhere in Swat, but the local police intercepted their car and asked them to go back. She cried that lives of transgenders were full of miseries and problems due to these restrictions and there was no one to help them come them out of such situation.

Meanwhile, Farzana Jan, a transgender rights activist, informed The Nation that what the Swat police were doing with the transgender people in Mingora city was against the constitution of Pakistan. She said police or anybody else was not authorized to force a citizen of Pakistan to leave any city or any other place, saying that it was the basic right of a citizen of Pakistan to live wherever he or she wants to in the country.

Rejecting the allegations of DSP Zahir Shah, Jan said that the accusations made by the police officer that people belonging to the transgender community were involved in obnoxious activities were all false. She claimed that the Swat police had not filed even a single report against the sexual activities of transgenders. She claimed that the Swat police were involved in extorting money from the transgender community. Without disclosing her name, a transgender, hailing from Swat, informed that many police personnel were deployed outside their homes in order to keep them indoors. 

According to Taimur Kamal, a transgender rights activist, there was no one above the law and the Swat police were violating the laws. Requesting the government to take this issue very seriously, he asked the government to fully implement the laws which were enacted by the parliament for the protection of transgenders. On September 19, the Ministry of Information Regional Office Peshawar had taken notice of the issue and had asked the District Police Officer (DPO) Swat to pay attention to the issue.

As The Nation contacted the Director of Human Rights Regional Office KP Ghulam Ali, he confirmed that such a notification was issued to the DPO Swat.