Malakand: In yet another tragic incident highlighting the vulnerability of the transgender community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a 22-year-old transgender person, Shahabuddin alias Wafa, was shot dead in the Dargai area of Malakand late on May 24.
According to local police, Wafa was returning home from a dance event when she was intercepted in the Harichand area by a man identified as Shoukat. Reports from Badragha police post suggest the suspect attempted to abduct Wafa, and upon her resistance, opened fire, fatally wounding her. Wafa’s driver, Naveed, was also injured in the attack.
Authorities have confirmed that Wafa hailed from the Pabbi area of Nowshera district but had recently been living in Mardan. Police believe the suspect was a former friend of Wafa, and that a failed relationship may have served as the motive. An investigation is underway, though Shoukat remains at large.
Farzana Riaz, President of the Trans Action Alliance, told Human Online that Wafa had been facing harassment and threats prior to her death. “She had rejected the suspect’s repeated attempts to force a relationship,” Riaz said, stressing that Wafa’s murder is not an isolated case but part of a disturbing and ongoing pattern of violence against transgender persons in the province.
Talking to Khalida Niaz - Reporter of Human Online- Farzana Riaz said that from 2015 to 2025, at least 153 transgender individuals have been murdered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, yet not a single perpetrator has been convicted.
She attributed this to a broader societal failure, noting that many victims are disowned by their families, who often refuse to even bury them after death. “It’s the transgender community that demands justice, holds protests, and arranges funerals. But after the media attention fades, families frequently reach financial settlements with murderers, letting them walk free,” she lamented.
Riaz has called on law enforcement agencies to ensure that transgender representatives are included in any legal or settlement processes involving such cases to safeguard against further marginalization and retaliation. She also criticized the hypocrisy of families who claim the victims’ earnings and assets while denying them dignity in life and death.
Meanwhile, concerns have also been raised about the representation of transgender individuals in national data. According to the 2023 digital census, Pakistan’s transgender population stands at 20,331. However, activists strongly dispute these figures—particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the transgender population dropped from 2,325 in 2017 to just 1,117 in 2023.
Farzana Riaz dismissed the official statistics as gross underreporting. “There are over 70,000 transgender people in KP alone, with more than 6,000 in Peshawar,” she claimed.
The murder of Wafa has once again drawn attention to the urgent need for legal protections, societal change, and accurate representation of the transgender community in Pakistan. Activists continue to demand justice and accountability in a system where impunity remains the norm.
