Agartala: Weeks after Tripura hosted its first queer pride walk in the streets of Agartala to celebrate freedom, a group of transgender persons were brutally assaulted by around 40 people inside Agartala City Centre last Friday night.
“They were manhandled, insulted and abused just because they tried to raise their voice against transgender slurs used against them by a group of women when they went to participate in the Durga Puja carnival held on Friday,” Sneha Gupta Roy, President of Swabhiman, the first NGO that works for the rights of the transgenders and the LGBTQ community in Tripura, told EastMojo.
Gupta Roy said, “The incident happened on Friday, but it got silenced under the noise of the carnival event. Abhijit, one of our members, suffered injuries when about forty men attacked them in the City Centre area.”
On being asked what led to the incident, she explained that when Abhijit and his friends reached Agartala City Center like thousands of others to attend the carnival, a group of women led by one Dipa Das used slurs and invectives against them. Abhijit’s friends tried to avoid it, but Abhijit reacted to her and protested against her insulting attitude which further escalated to a heated exchange of words and a physical face-off.
Overpowered by Abhijit and his friends, the women vacated the spot to return with around 40 young people who started beating Abhijit and his friends. A woman hit Abhijit repeatedly with her shoe. “One of our volunteers, Debamita Paul, shot the entire incident and you can see how Abhijit was manhandled in full public view. When one of the perpetrators identified as Salim Khan sensed that they were being captured in a video, he snatched the mobile phone and returned it. We have lodged an FIR with the West Agartala Police Station in connection with the case. Initially, we did not have any clue about the woman but she had also been identified lately as Dipa Das. On Monday, we shall again gather in front of the police station seeking action against the perpetrators”, she added. Abhijit and his friends refused to speak to the media, as they are still under the trauma of the harrowing experience they underwent.
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