LONDON – A chilling report has exposed a dramatic rise in violence against Pakistan’s transgender community, with prominent activist Bindiya Rana narrowly escaping death in a brazen shooting at her own home. The January 19 incident in Karachi has ignited widespread alarm over the escalating threats facing trans individuals in the country.
Rana, leader of Gender Alliance Interactive, was sipping tea with colleague Zehrish Khan Zadi when assailants fired three shots through her door moments after she remotely unlocked it. Both women miraculously survived unscathed as the attackers fled the scene. Khan Zadi, speaking to The Guardian, recounted the terrifying ordeal: ‘The door opened, and three bullets rang out. They escaped, and Rana dodged every shot.’
The next morning, they filed a police complaint against unknown perpetrators. Khan Zadi, long aware of dangers to trans people in Pakistan, never imagined such violence striking her leader’s home. ‘Those who protect others are now targets themselves,’ she lamented.
This attack fits a disturbing pattern. Just months earlier, trans woman Nadira was stabbed at Karachi’s Sea View beach after refusing a man’s advances while begging. HIV-positive Nadira saved her 2,500 rupees but suffered a gut wound. Days later, three trans women were shot dead at close range in Karachi’s outskirts.
Gender Alliance Interactive documents 55 murders in Sindh province from 2022 to September 2025, including 17 in Karachi alone. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, tribal elders have ordered trans women out of districts, accusing them of ‘corrupting youth.’ A September dance event in Swabi led to 200 arrests, including four trans individuals.
As Pakistan’s transgender rights protections falter amid rising extremism, activists demand urgent government action to stem this tide of brutality before more lives are lost.
