Body of transgender person found in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: The body of a transgender person was found lying on Warsak Road in the city on Saturday, police said.

According to the police, the body was found from the fields in Ashiqabad, within the jurisdiction of Mathra police station. 

Police said the body was yet to be identified, which is why they took it in their custody and started investigation into the case.  

Meanwhile, speaking to Geo.tv, social rights activist Qamar Naseem said the deceased was a resident of Iqbal Plaza where some of the fellow residents identified the body as that of Arif alias Warra from Karachi, while the others said she was from Oghi, Mansehra.

Naseem said the body, which appeared to be two or three days old as it had insects crawling on it, showed signs of brutal torture.

Although the body was found earlier in the day, it was not buried until the night as the in-charge of the only morgue in Peshawar, which belonged to Khyber Medical College, was not ready to take it in, saying an insect-infested body could not be kept there, Naseem said.

On the other hand, he added, the government contractor — working under the police department — who is responsible to bury unclaimed bodies also refused to carry out the final rites.

Even the deceased’s fellow residents at Iqbal Plaza were not ready to claim the body to perform final rites as they wanted to stay out of the issue, the social activist said. He added it was unfortunate to see that there were around 300 to 400 transgender persons there at the plaza but none of them seemed sympathetic towards the body that was “hit by dagger and nearly decapitated”.

When asked, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Additional Director General of Health Dr Ayub Roz said he messaged KMC Principal Dr Noor-ul-Aman but the latter did not get back to him.

However, he added, the morgue in-charge would have refused because the body had a strong stench emanating from it, which would have surrounded other bodies kept there.