The murdered bodies of three transgender women were recovered from a roadside on the outskirts of Karachi in Pakistan, local authorities confirmed on Monday.
The women, who were shot dead at close range, were discovered on Sunday in a local graveyard, the Independent reported, citing senior police official Javed Abro.
Abro said the motive was unclear, but efforts were underway to find the killer.
The Gender Interactive Alliance claimed the three victims were local residents who had made their living from begging.
The GIA also noted a separate incident days before the discovery of the bodies, whereby a transgender woman was wounded in a knife attack at Karachi's Sea View Beach.
"These back-to-back tragedies show that the community is being systematically targeted. This is not just about individual killings; it is an attempt to terrorize and silence an entire community," GIA stated.
The treatment of transgender individuals in Pakistan
Sindh Province Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah ordered a probe and shared that "Transgender people are an oppressed section of society.”
Transgender members of the community and their allies protested outside Karachi's state-run Jinnah Hospital on Sunday, where the bodies were taken for autopsy. The group demanded justice, warning that the protest would spread across the nation if efforts to locate the killer were insubstantial.
Bindiya Rana, a transgender rights activist, told The Associated Press on Monday that violence against the community "is not new and it is deeply embedded in our society."
"If the police fail to identify the killers, we will announce a countrywide protest," she said.
In the Conservative, Muslim-majority country, transgender people have legal protections but are often subjected to abuse, including honor killings.
A law passed in Pakistan guaranteed fundamental rights for the group after Pakistan’s Supreme Court recognized a third gender category for those identifying as transgender.