PESHAWAR: As the body of a transgender person, who died in the custody of the Saudi police few days ago, reached Pakistan and was laid to rest in Swat on Saturday, the father of another transgender detained in the desert country have requested the Saudi and Pakistani government to help him secure the release of his son.

The body of Amin Khan alias Amina was transported through a flight of the Pakistan International Airlines to the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad.

The body placed in a wooden coffin was accompanied by Sher Amin, one of the four sons of the deceased, who also works in Saudi Arabia.

The deceased was arrested along with 34 other Pakistani transgender persons allegedly from a Riyadh rest house on Feb 26.

While some civil society activists alleged that two of the arrested transgender persons had died of torture, the Saudi interior ministry denied it claiming cardiac arrest had claimed the life of Amin.

Members of the Transaction Alliance, a network of transgender persons and rights activists working for the rights of the said community, received the body at the Islamabad airport and transported it to Barikot in Swat, the native area of the deceased.

The transgender person was laid to rest at night after his funeral was held.

Sher Amin told Dawn that the family had already passed through miserable times while getting back the body and transporting it to Pakistan and therefore, they won’t demand autopsy.

He said his father was a tailor and he had heard that he was arrested at a birthday party of one of his friends.

He said he had not seen the body to confirm whether it carried torture marks, but some of his teeth were broken.

The Saudi police had claimed that they had conducted the raid after reports about a party wherein some men were dressed in women’s clothes.

Sardar Ali, father of a detained transgender person, Nasir Malick alias Spogmai, told Dawn that his son continued to be detained at Azizia police station in Saudi Arabia.

He requested the Saudi ambassador in Pakistan and Pakistani prime minister to look into the matter.

He said he had sent written appeals to several persons, including president, prime minister and chief justice of Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Saudi ambassador in Pakistan, Pakistani ambassador in Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch, Asian Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and National Commission on Human Rights chairman, but to no avail.

“What my son Nasir was doing here was a continuous stigma for the entire family due to which we sent him to Saudi Arabia five years ago presuming he will mend his ways there as it is a holy land,” said Sardar Ali in his house in Tarnab, a small village of Charsadda situated eight kilometers off the main road.

Looking at a picture of a young man clad in women’s clothes and wearing heavy makeup and jewelry, Sardar confirmed that it was his son, Nasir.

Several pictures were released by Saudi authorities and uploaded on a media website showing the arrested men, including some cross-dressers.

A member of Transaction Alliance, Qamar Naseem, said according to information received by them from Saudi Arabia, five persons had been in the custody of the police and that they were Nasir, Azam, Hayat, Irfan and Mahtab.

He said the rest of the arrested persons were freed after payment of fine and fulfillment of other legal requirements.

Visibly fighting his tears, Sardar Ali said Nasir, who is around 30, was elder among his three sons and two daughters and had studied up to eighth grade when he had left home and gone to Karachi.

“I went to Karachi and brought him back, but later on he again fled away to Swat,” he said, adding that when he brought him back from Swat, he shaved his head as punishment.

“I felt so much ashamed of the life spent by Nasir here that once I told my wife that I am going to kill him and she should forget that she was having a son by that name,” he said.

Few months ago, he said, he had gone to Saudi Arabia along with his wife and stayed with Nasir while performing Umrah and they were very much jubilant that he was a changed man.

“Four days ago, a co-villager informed me that he had heard on radio that some Pakistanis were arrested in Saudi Arabia and I should also inquire about my son,” he said.

He said it was like a bombshell when he came to know that his son didn’t mend his ways and that he was among the arrested persons.

“I and my wife have hardly taken sleep and food since we came to know about Nasir’s arrest. His mother has been in a state of shock and constantly crying thinking about the ordeal through which her son has been passing.”

Another villager, Fayyaz Khan, said once he took Nasir for tableegh (religious preaching) along with a group and that during those days, he behaved well but on return, he rejoined the group of around a dozen transgender persons.

Sardar Ali said Nasir used to go to dance parties and sometime dressed in women’s clothes, which was a source of shame for the family.

“Whatever his lifestyle is, he is my son and I can’t see him in such a miserable condition in a foreign country’s prison.

“I didn’t leave any stone unturned to change the habits of my son, but it didn’t work. Only the Almighty Allah knows the pain felt by our family.”

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2017

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