London, Jan 28, 2026
Violence against the transgender community has surged in Pakistan, a report stated on Wednesday while highlighting the recent attack on Bindiya Rana.
Rana was attacked at her home while she was having tea with Zehrish Khanzadi, another trans woman who works for the Gender Alliance Interactive (GIA), an organisation that advocates for transgender rights.
“Within seconds of Rana unlocking the door remotely from the kitchen, three shots rang out. The men fled and she narrowly escaped all three bullets,” Khanzadi was quoted as saying by leading UK daily Guardian.
Rana is the head of GIA while Khanzadi works as a rights activist.
“By morning, they had filed a formal police complaint against the unknown assailants. As an activist, Khanzadi is acutely aware of the risks that trans communities in Pakistan face but she never expected to become a victim herself in the safety of her own home in Karachi. Those who protect others are now under attack,” she told the UK newspaper.
The shooting incident on January 19 is the latest in a series of brutal assaults and killings of transgender people in Pakistan. In September, Nadira, a trans woman who had gone to beg at Sea View beach in Karachi was attacked with a knife for rejecting a man who was approaching her.
“I told him I’m a beggar, not a sex worker, but he wouldn’t listen,” Nadira, who is HIV-positive, said. She managed to protect her bag which had Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 2,500 rupees. However, the attacker stabbed her in the abdomen. Two days later, three trans women were shot at close range on Karachi’s outskirts.
“Violence against the transgender community in Pakistan has surged. GIA has documented 55 killings in Sindh province between 2022 and September 2025, including 17 in Karachi. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, elders in several districts have been ordering trans women to leave, accusing them of ‘corrupting the youth’.
In September, about 200 people – including four transgender people – were arrested at a dance in Swabi,” The Guardian stated.
Farzana Riaz of the Transgender Community Alliance in Peshawar said that the transgender community had organised a dance event and no one asked to cancel it when it was being advertised. Many trans women are now scared to step outside their homes.
As many as 26 petitioners have filed a case in Peshawar high court against the provincial police chief for harassment and humiliation. For now, court has issued restraining orders on local authorities to stop the expulsion of transgender people.(Agency)
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