Floating sex workers in Dhaka have reported being assaulted by groups of young men over the past few days in various areas.
Several videos of these assaults have been shared on Facebook. In three of them, young men can be seen beating up sex workers on the street.
One such video begins with a masked young man saying: "We need to evict these prostitutes like this. Another group appears after we beat up one group." The man, identified as HM Rasel Sultan on his Facebook profile, later removes his mask and continues his speech.
The video shows the man violently beating a woman with a green pipe, chasing another and then assaulting a teenage girl. As he beats the girl, she repeatedly pleads: "I will leave this work." At one point, the man even snatches the girl's mobile phone.
In the Facebook post accompanying the video, Rasel wrote: "Please do not comment until you watch the whole video. The mastermind is this woman in the video. If you see her, resist. ... Everyone, join in the protest. Encourage it."
Rasel mentioned that the incident had occurred near Shyamoli Square Shopping Mall in the capital.
Kallyanmayi Nari Sangha, an organization working with floating sex workers, reported that women had been repeatedly attacked in this manner since August 27. At least 60 female sex workers had been injured in these incidents, it added.
According to Kallyanmayi Nari Sangha, there are currently at least 10,000 floating sex workers in Dhaka.