LAHORE: The Women`s Action Forum has expressed deep concerned over mounting violence against the transgender community of the country, claiming that according to a rough estimate, around 70 transgender persons were brutally killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone in the last two years.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the WAF said the murders, besides the incidents of torture, rape and violence, were not limited to KP, but were taking place across the country, showing no signs of abatement.

It highlighted that a cause for concern, especially for the law enforcement agencies, parliamentarians and society in general, was that most murders of the transgen-der persons as well as the acts of violence and torture against them went unpunished, as the police failed to file first information reports and the `guardians of so-called morality` criminalised them for their very existence.

As victims of a deep-rooted social and moral bias, it further stated, transgender persons were among the most marginalised communities here. They were vulnerable to multiple forms of psychological, sexual and physical violence ranging from forced prostitution, rape, trafficking and abandonment by families, to public insults and humiliation and neglect by state institutions that treated them as lesser human beings.

Excluded from education and means of sustenance, the transpersons earned their living as entertainers, sex workers and beg-gars. Despite the precarity of their lifestyles, many of them supported their biological families who took their money but refused to own them, the WAF lamented. At the same time, their male clients exploited them sexually and financially and punished them brutally for their own unbridled lust, it added.

Pakistan was among the first countries to provide legal recognition to the trans community as the third gender, with the court directing the government to create jobs for them. However, the Transgender Protection Act 2018 was not honoured and failed to ensure the social and economic security of the people. The WAF urged the government to take steps to implement these laws and put an end to the `genocide` of the community.

At the same time, the WAF also urges allmembers of society to review and change their attitudes and behaviours towards the most vulnerable and neglected members of the community.

Meanwhile, on the occasion of the annual International Transgender Day of Visibility on Thursday, an event was organised at Alhamra, which was attended by Human Rights and Minorities Af fairs Minister Ijaz Alam Augustine, as well as representatives from the police, human rights and social welfare departments, who discussed the rights of the community.

Minister Augustine claimed the Punjab government was providing health, education and basic facilities to the transgender community. While transgender person Sonia and others demanded complete implementation of the 2018 Act that ensured protection of their rights.