Gunmen in Pakistan kill trans woman, friend

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Police in Pakistan say gunmen riding on motorcycle shot and killed a transgender woman and her friend in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Police officer Mohammad Tahir says the two were targeted as they travelled in a rickshaw late Tuesday night, and that the motive for the killing is unknown.

Dozens of transgender people have been killed in recent years, mainly in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital. The Trans Action Alliance, a local rights group, says 55 have been killed there in the last three years.

No one has claimed the killings, but Islamic extremists, who associated transgender people with prostitution, are active in the region.