SWAT: Swat Superintendent of Police (SP) Khan Khel said Monday that the department has been receiving complaints from local residents regarding activities of transgenders in the area, after which the district police has rounded up 17 non-local transgenders in the district and presented them in court.
Talking to Pakistan Today, SP Khan Khel said that all police stations concerned have been issued notification in this connection. He said that the decision was taken after local community members complained about immoral and vulgar activities carried out by transgenders in the area.
Earlier, members of the local community had complained that transgenders who arrived from other districts of the province were involved in promoting vulgar and obscene activities in the district, which distracted the local youth.
The police officer also said that members of the transgender community have not been ordered to leave the area, while adding that the police could not allow vulgarity to be promoted in the area in an effort to keep local peace intact.
While talking to this scribe, a transgender living in Mingora city, namely Jan alias Ghazala, said that the police were forcing members of the transgender community to vacate the area, which was both illegal and unconstitutional. The transgender, originally belonging to Madina colony in Peshawar, said that police had no concrete evidence against them, nor have any complaints been registered against community members in the respective police station, but the police were still carrying out operations to drive them out of their houses.
Further, Jan said that the police only conducted raids against those people who did not pay them cover money. He alleged that a few days ago, police personnel belonging to Buner police came to his residence and arrested him, along with other housemates, and took them to the police station concerned. He said the police tied them to chains for four hours and only allowed them to leave after taking Rs 3,000 as bribe.
President of the local transgender community, namely Nadia, told Pakistan Today that the number of non-local transgenders in Swat was between 200 to 250. The community leader said that the locals launched complaints against them because transgenders wore women clothes and roamed freely in marketplaces around the district.
Adnan Bacha, a resident of Mingora, while showing concern about the rising numbers of transgenders in the district, said that non-local transgenders were not the only ones spreading obscenity in the area since local transgenders were also involved in immoral trades. He said that the police should conduct an unbiased operation to cleanse the area of transgenders and ensure that youth did not become victims of immoral activities.
