RIYADH: Two transgender persons died after being subjected to torture allegedly by Saudi police in Riyadh for dressing up as women in public.
According to Saudi media, Amna, 35, and Meeno, 26, both natives of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), died in police custody. The police allegedly packed them in sacks and thrashed them with sticks in prison.
The police on Tuesday arrested some thirty-five transgender people for cross-dressing, which is a punishable offence in the kingdom.
“A rest house was raided where a ‘Guru Chela Chalan’ gathering, a formal meeting of Khuwaja Sara in which they choose their Guru (leader) and Chelas (Students), was taking place,” a report said.
Colonel Fawaz bin Jameel alMaiman, the police’s media spokesperson in Riyadh also confirmed the arrest of 35 people saying that the field-control management had the site under constant surveillance.
“Majority of the arrested, belong to K-P and the others from other cities of Pakistan, he said, adding that women’s clothing and jewellery were also recovered from the rest house.
While 11 were released later after paying a fine of 150,000 riyals, 22 are still in police custody, alMaiman added.
In 2016, local media reported that the Saudi consul-general in Islamabad, in a notification issued to the Travel Agents Association of Pakistan (TAAP), warned against granting visas to transgender persons for Umrah pilgrimage.
