March 27, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

PESHAWAR, March 26: As if everything else has become hunky-dory in provincial capital, transvestites have become victims of the latest crackdown by the Capital City Police (CCP) in the provincial capital.

“Police came, locked our places and asked us to leave,” a transvestite in Peshawar told Dawn.

A short statement attributed to the police and carried by a section of the local press on Wednesday said the crackdown had been ordered by the CCP to “monitor the activities of transvestites” whose abodes, it alleged, had become the dens of criminal activities.

A city beset by a wave of kidnappings for ransom and other crimes, the orders by the police high-ups to go after the transvestites in Peshawar and forced them to vacate their houses, were not only reminiscent of the MMA rule but have also become the butt of jokes amongst despondent citizens.

“It seems as if the police have been able to overcome kidnappings, car-thefts and terrorist activities. That’s why they have now turn their guns towards the poor eunuchs”, said one city resident.

A police official, requesting he not be named, told Dawn that raids were conducted on the abodes of transvestites and their residences have been sealed at Gulbahar, Haji Camp and Dabgari areas.

A group of eunuchs sitting on a roadside in Gulbahar said the police raided their houses and had locked them out.

The police official said the action was taken on directives from the Capital City Police Officer Tanvirur Haq Sipra, saying that some elements visiting transvestites were involved in various crimes.

SSP (operation) Syed Imtiaz Shah told Dawn that action was not limited to the eunuchs but against anti-social elements.

During the campaign, he claimed to have arrested many proclaimed offenders and also recovered weapons and contraband items from their possessions.

The police had taken similar action against the ‘third gender’ people during the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) government on Jan 23, 2003 as a part of what the government had claimed was its campaign against obscenity. At that time the police had asked the eunuchs to confine their activities to their workplaces, and stop displaying musical instruments outside their houses and business premises. But in addition to locking them out, the transvestites have now also been asked to stop performing at weddings and similar functions.

“Not only have the police locked our homes, we have also been asked to leave the area,” said one transvestite. A transvestite who identified himself as Imran said the police had searched his pockets and allegedly took away Rs100 from him.

Vice-Chairman Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Kamran Arif in a statement condemned the police action against the transvestite community. He said there should be no discrimination on basis of sexuality, saying that targeting a particular group on the basis of their peculiar gender was not only discriminatory but also against fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan.

CCPO Sipra, when contacted, totally denied having issued any instruction against the eunuchs, saying that there was no policy to take action against them. “Local police might have taken the action, but this is not a policy,” he added.