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Gunmen kill transgender person in Karachi
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A Pakistani transgender holds a placard as they rally to mark World Aids Day in Karachi on Nov. 30, 2013. World AIDS Day is celebrated on December 1 every year to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and to demonstrate international solidarity in the face of the pandemic. (Agence France -Presse/Asif Hassan)
U
nknown gunmen killed a transgender person in Pakistan's port city of Karachi Wednesday, police said, in the latest attack to target the marginalised community in the deeply conservative country.
The attackers initially threw eggs from a moving car at the victim and her friend before returning to the scene and firing gunshots at the pair.
"The bullet hit the jaw (of the victim) who died of that shot," senior police officer Saqib Ismail told AFP.
In 2009, Pakistan became one of the first countries in the world to legally recognise a third sex, allowing transgenders to obtain identity cards, while several have also run in elections.
Despite these strides, many transgender Pakistanis face rampant discrimination and are forced to live as pariahs, often reduced to begging or prostitution and subjected to extortion and violence.
Modern-day Pakistani transgender people claim to be cultural heirs of the eunuchs who thrived at the courts of the Mughal emperors that ruled the Indian subcontinent for two centuries until the British arrived in the 19th century and banned them.
