Lahore: The business of allegedly buying and selling transvestites is growing rapidly in Pakistan. Transgender women are bid for lakhs of rupees while disciples who disobey the Guru’s order are subjected to sexual, physical and mental violence.
NGOs working for transgender rights claim that in the last five years, around 3,500 transgenders have been tortured and many have been killed.
Twenty-five-year-old eunuch Nighan belongs to Gujranwala. Nigheen has alleged that he was brutally tortured and badly beaten by his guru Azim Riaz along with his other disciples during a party dance in Sialkot.
According to the eyes, this incident took place on June 15 this year. A case of this incident has been registered in Sialkot Sadar police station, but the police have not yet arrested any accused. The main accused Azim Riaz is absconding. Khajasara Nighaan has also shared the pictures of the torture and beatings on herself with The Express Tribune.
Nigheen claimed that several eunuch gurus, including Azim Riaz, engaged in the business of buying and selling their disciples. Transgenders are mostly bought and sold in South Punjab. Transgender videos are bid for by sharing them in WhatsApp groups. Transgender women are sold for Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 crore.
This claim of the eunuch gaze has been confirmed by Saba Gill, a well-known eunuch guru from Rawalpindi and head of the Indus Home Welfare Foundation.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, she said that she is fighting to free transgender women from slavery. The eunuchs are bought by their gurus for a few thousand rupees and then sold for double the price. Transgenders are begged for dances, prostitution, and if a transgender refuses, they are tortured. Sometimes transgender women even have to take their own lives.
Saba Gul claimed that in the last five years, 3469 transgender women have been tortured and harassed across the country, while many transgender women have also been killed. He also claimed that when Imran Khan’s government was overthrown in April 2012, a few weeks after that, he protested in Rawalpindi, after which some unknown persons arrested him and took away all his records. What has been taken away has not been returned to him.
Anaya Chaudhry, a human rights activist and transgender who works as a victim support officer at the Police Protection Center, also admits that gurus take a share of their earnings from their disciples and when a transgender leaves her guru for another. If he goes, money is taken even then, but those people do not call this process buying and selling.
He further said that just as elders do household chores to run a household, the Guruka Dera is also a house of eunuchs for the running of which all the disciples give a portion of their income to their Guru.
No government organization or NGO has accurate statistics on the violence, harassment and murder of transgender women, but Laila Naz, the head of the Saathi Foundation, which is active in the rights of transgender women in Lahore, says that she has met a foreigner. A study program on violence and murder of transgender women was conducted from 2018 to 2022 in collaboration with NGOs.
He said that he could not share the final report of this study, but interviews were conducted with two thousand transgenders who were victims of violence in a few selected districts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the year 2021, 20 transgender women were killed.
Human rights activist and lawyer Izzat Fatima says that many important steps have been taken in the last few years for the rights and recognition of transgenders in Pakistan, in which they have been given the right to vote and share in inherited property. . While the Trans Protection Act 2018 also guarantees the transgender community the same fundamental rights as ordinary citizens to prevent discrimination against them.
He said that Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan states that “there shall be no discrimination against any citizen on the ground of sex.” Apart from Article 25, Section 5 of the law prohibits harassment of transgenders, but alas. Unfortunately, despite these laws, transgender people face many forms of violence.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Lahore Saida Shahr Bano Naqvi sees the process of alleged sale and purchase of transgenders from another angle.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, he said that it is not correct to say that transgenders are being bought and sold. We need to understand the lifestyle of the transgender community. When transgenders are not accepted even by their parents and close relatives, then they go to a Guru’s camp. The Guru holds the status of both their mother and father to them. When the Guru places a turban on the head of a disciple, he announces an allocation of money for him. Which can be from a few hundred rupees to a few thousand and lakhs. But when that chela leaves his guru and goes to another guru, then the other guru has to pay double the amount.
He also said that just as we give greetings to our family, friends on marriage, nyvendra on marriage, same way transgenders give gifts and cash on each other’s birthdays.
Syeda Shehrbanu said that as far as the harassment of transgenders, these violent, rape incidents are concerned, police protection centers have been set up where transgenders can contact 24 hours a day. Transgender Victim Support Officers have been appointed at these centers to interact with transgenders.
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