Transgender Pakistanis demand protection after killing

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Dozens of transgender people in Pakistan have held a protest demanding more protection after a transgender woman was shot dead and dismembered last week.

The protesters gathered outside the Peshawar Press Club in the northwestern city on Monday, chanting “We want protection, we want respect and rights.”

Farzana Jan, president of Transgender Association, said the transgender woman, who went by the name Nazo, was killed in the suburbs of Peshawar on Friday. Police say they arrested two men who were taking the body parts to dispose of them.

Jan’s group says 62 transgender people have been killed since 2015 in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province alone, and that 478 attacks have been reported this year.