Pakistan police arrest 3 men who stabbed and killed 2 transgender women at their home

Pakistan’s police arrested three men on suspicion of killing two transgender women with daggers at their home in the country’s conservative northwest, police said on Wednesday.

District police chief Zahur Babar Afridi told reporters that the men were arrested Tuesday over the killings, which took place Sunday in Mardan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The men, who were handcuffed and whose faces were covered with hoods, were present at the police news conference. Afridi said the three men had confessed to the killings during questioning.

Their arrest came a day after representatives of trans community in northwestern Pakistan urged police to detain the perpetrators.

Transgender people are often subjected to harassment, abuse and attacks in Muslim-majority Pakistan. They are also among the victims of so-called honor killings carried out by relatives to punish perceived sexual transgressions.

Mardan is located 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.