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Summary
A man and a eunuch have given in police custody on one-day physical remand on Tuesday. Police arrested Malik Iqbal for marrying a eunuch Kashif in Peshawar along with 40 wedding guests.Following complaints from locals we raided the place and found that the wedding party was in full swing, police officer Shahid Khan told. They were dancing, dinner was ready to be served, and a special wedding bed was prepared for the couple. We also recovered some pictures of the couple. Among the arrested were 15 eunuchs and 35 male friends and family members of Iqbal, who according to police is already married to a woman. Under Pakistani law gay marriage or a man's marriage to a eunuch is a criminal offence and carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. We have charged the couple with adultery and 40 participants with collaboration in the offence, Khan said. A Pakistani court in December ordered the government to accept hijras' identity as a distinct gender to ensure their rights, in a verdict that has been hailed by activists as a landmark development. Some 30,000 eunuchs were previously denied national identity cards since the applicant was allowed to pronounce their gender only as male or female.
