At least 100 sex workers of Tangail town’s Kandapara brothel took position in the now-vacate place yesterday, nearly two months after they were forced to leave by a so-called citizens’ committee backed by the mayor.
They started to gather at the place since noon and built makeshift camps with polythene and clothes.
Hearing this, people under the banner of the citizens’ committee titled “Oshamajik Karjokolap Protirodh Committee” brought out a procession from the central mosque. The protesters stopped and held a rally in front of the model police station as the law enforcers stopped them.
Committee President Maulana Abdul Aziz and central mosque Imam Maulana Shamsuzzaman spoke at the rally. They announced mass gathering and procession for this morning.
District police chief Saleh Mohammad Tanvir said the law enforcers were on alert to avert any untoward incident.
The Dhaka Tribune has found that current Mayor Shahidur Rahman Khan Mukti masterminded the recent eviction. Most of over 1,000 sex workers left the brothel after iftar on July 12 and the remaining few by the next afternoon.
Following the eviction, they staged demonstrations in the capital with the support of different women and human rights organisations.
In October 2006, a section of local residents and clerics tried to evict the 200-year-old brothel. A local citizen committee opposed the move saying that they could not be evicted without rehabilitation.
A few days later, the High Court prohibited eviction of sex workers without proper rehabilitation. In another ruling in 2000, the court gave legality to the trade.
In 2010 and 2013, the committee again tried to remove the sex workers from the area but failed to succeed. Just like this year, those two drives were also made in the month of Ramadan.
