A trans woman left her village to look for help and charity. She was bludgeoned to death and dumped in a well
Pakistan’s transgender community protest the lack of support during coronavirus lockdown, 2020. (ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Police are investigating the murder of a trans woman whose body was recovered from a well in Pakistan over the weekend.
Local police were alerted to the body by a passerby on Saturday, May 9. It had been dumped in a well near Rohtas Fort, a 16th-century fortress located near the city of Jhelum in the Pakistani province of Punjab.
The victim was taken to the district hospital for an autopsy. There she was identified as Heerawas, a resident of Rathiaan, a village about 15 kilometres away.
According the local transgender community, who rushed to the hospital when news of the death spread, Heerawas had gone to Rohtas Fort seeking charity.
A post mortem report showed that the victim had been struck with a sharp object in the head, but little else is known about her final hours.
Her body has been handed over to the transgender community, while the police have registered a case of murder against the unidentified suspects and started an investigation.
Trans community in Pakistan struggling with coronavirus lockdown.
Pakistan’s transgender community, already forced to the fringes of society, are being deprived of crucial support during the country’s coronavirus lockdown.
Pakistan news outlet The News reported concerns that transgender people have been left to fend for themselves as NGOs who previously helped them have stopped working.
Shakila, a trans woman from Peshawar, told the newspaper that she and others like her had been left out of the relief packages announced by federal and provincial governments.
“We are the most unfortunate human beings on Earth because neither the federal nor the provincial government has bothered to consider our plight,” she said.
Iftikhar Shalwani, a commissioner in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, previously said that help would be provided for trans people to ensure they would not be left hungry or out on the streets.
He told the Express Tribune: “We are committed to providing them with all possible help.”
