Mohammad Mohsin, known within Bangladesh's hijra community as Mousumi Hijra and respected as "Guruma," was found dead in her home in Chattogram on Saturday, her neck marked with signs of strangulation. Police have since arrested a 34-year-old man they say confessed to killing her.
What Happened
Police were called to Mousumi's home in the hijra colony near Ambagan Railway Colony on Saturday morning after neighbors grew concerned that she wasn't responding. She was found lying face down on her bed. Investigators initially treated it as a possible robbery, since money and two mobile phones were missing from the property, but CCTV footage led them to a suspect within two days.
Officers say the footage shows Md Momin, also known as Sheikh Roni, entering Mousumi's room at 1:14am on the night she died and leaving nearly three hours later. He was arrested in the Pahartali area of Chattogram on Monday. Police allege Mousumi had invited him over with the promise of money, that the two later argued over money and a sexual relationship, and that Momin strangled her with a nylon strap before fleeing. The exact circumstances remain under investigation, and her body was sent to Chattogram Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem.
Members of the hijra community gathered outside her residence and called for a fair investigation.
A Community Under Siege
Chattogram's hijra colony has long functioned as a refuge for a population Bangladesh officially recognized as a "third gender" in 2013 and 2014, yet that recognition has rarely translated into real protection. Rights groups tracking violence against LGBTQI+ people in Bangladesh recorded a sharp rise in attacks in recent years, from roughly 200 documented incidents in 2022 to nearly 400 in 2024, with transgender people bearing the brunt. At least five transgender women were murdered in separate incidents in 2024 alone, part of a pattern researchers link to political instability and the growing influence of religious fundamentalist groups.
MQ's Take
Legal recognition means little without enforcement, and Bangladesh's hijra community has felt that gap for over a decade. A "third gender" designation on paper hasn't stopped discrimination in hiring, healthcare, or policing, and it certainly hasn't stopped the violence. Mousumi was a Guruma, a guardian figure to others in her community; losing a leader like her, under such brutal circumstances, is a loss the whole community will carry. Whatever the final motive turns out to be, her death lands inside a crisis that Bangladesh's authorities have been slow to name, let alone address.
Source: Attitude
Cover photo: Vitaly Kushnir / Pexels
