Brutally tortured body of transgender person found in Peshawar

PESHAWAR (Monitoring Desk): The body of a transgender person was found lying on Warsak Road in the city on Saturday.

According to a social rights activist in Peshawar, Qamar Naseem, the deceased was a resident of Iqbal Plaza where some of the fellow residents identified the body as that of Arif alias Warra from Karachi, while the others said she was from Oghi, Mansehra.

He added the body seemed to be two or three days old as it had insects crawling on it.

Although the body was found earlier in the day, it was not buried until night as incharge of the only morgue in Peshawar, which belonged to Khyber Medical College, was not ready to take it in, saying an insect-infested body could not be kept there, Naseem said.

On the other hand, he added, the government contractor — working under the police department — who is responsible to bury unclaimed bodies also refused to carry out the final rites.

Even the deceased’s fellow residents at Iqbal Plaza were not ready to claim the body to perform final rites as they wanted to stay out of the issue, the social activist told media. He added it was unfortunate to see that there were around 300 to 400 transgender persons there at the plaza but none of them seemed sympathetic towards the body that was “hit by dagger and nearly decapitated”.

When asked, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Additional Director General of Health Dr Ayub Roz said he messaged KMC Principal Dr Noor-ul-Aman but the latter did not get back to him.

However, he added, the morgue incharge would have refused because the body had a strong stench emanating from it, which would have surrounded other bodies kept there.