Friday, Apr 26, 2024 | Last Update : 02:48 AM IST
Pak gang leader raped transgender women, forced them to drink urine
These revelations were made after one of the transgender women was flogged by the leader of a criminal gang in Pakistan's Sialkot.
Islamabad: A transgender woman in Pakistan’s Sialkot city has revealed the atrocities they suffered at the hands of members of a criminal gang who were arrested on Monday in connection with the flogging of one of the transgender women.
The leader of the criminal gang flogged a transgender woman at her home in front of a few other people, who intervened to protect her. He later posted a video of the abuse on social media.
According to reports, one of the transgender women identified as Jolie was present at the crime scene. She said the gang members dragged them all out after flogging the victim and took them to another transgender woman’s house.
She said the gang members barged into a house where several transgender women were living, beating and torturing one of them for several hours and shaving the heads of others.
She alleged that the men forced them to drink their urine, raped them and beat them up with shoes.
The gang members were arrested in the eastern city of Sialkot after the video of the flogging was shared thousands of times on social media, said police official Iqbal Sindhu.
The video shows the gang leader pinning the woman face down on a bed with his foot and beating her with what appears to be a leather belt. At one point, while another gang member continues the flogging, the leader places his foot on the victim's neck and twists her arms.
Police chief Abid Khan said five of those arrested have been charged with torture and extortion, while the other five are under investigation.
The alleged gang leader, who identified himself as Jajja, told Dunya News that he was friends with the victim.
"I was punishing him because he didn't refrain from his bad habits, which I pointed out to him several times," he said in an interview conducted while he was in police custody.
Transgender people in Pakistan are social outcasts who are often forced into begging, dancing and prostitution to earn money. Fearing attacks, most either change their names or use only one name.
TransAction, a local transgender rights group, posted a video interview with Jolie. Sindhu, the police official, confirmed Jolie was present at the scene.
