Tangail mayor behind brothel eviction

The local mayor Shahidur Rahman Khan alias Mukti is behind the eviction of the brothels in the 'red-light' area of Kandapara, Tangail. The main reason behind this is three acres of land, say the sex workers as well as persons within the administration.

Two weeks after the eviction, the sex workers are still in fear of their lives, seeking refuge here and there. With no alternative, a large number of them have taken to the streets. The HIV/AIDS control programme which was running in the area, has shut down.

Senior leaders of Tangail's administration, local people, landlords of the red-light area, tenants, sex workers and shopkeepers of the area, say that Shahidur Rahman is behind this eviction. At least  10 women, eye witnesses and victims of the drive, say that the municipal mayor's close associate Jubo League Joint Secretary Sanwar Hossain and Shecchshebok League Joint Convenor Nasiruddin Nuru Islam, had threatened to lock the main gates of the brothel and burn the place down with petrol. The mayor's brother Zahidur Rahman Khan Kankon assisted in the eviction.

The mayor has denied that he carried out the eviction to grab the land. He tells Prothom Alo, "This is not an eviction. The sex workers have voluntarily changed their profession and left. There have been no complaints so far. If anyone wants to change their profession, I can't forcefully stop them." He says that though his house in Kandapara was adjacent to the red-light area, he had not enmity with the sex workers. The question of grabbing their land did not even arise. The sex workers just suddenly got up and left.

However, the mayor had spoken at a mosque in Tangail on July 11 concerning the eviction of the brothels. When a journalist raised the question of evicting the sex workers without first arranging for their rehabilitation, the mayor's men stopped him from questioning.

A certain person who has 53 rooms in the brothel and considers himself to be a 'brother' of the mayor, is alleged to have run a liquor business in the area. He says that the mayor had approached them saying, they should look and see what they could do elsewhere. "I didn't realise that the eviction would take place so soon," he says, "But my brother will not grab the land. That is a false allegation."

Behind the scenes: A landlord who owns 17 rooms and a shop in the Kandapara brothel area, says, "Even a child can understand why this eviction has taken place. It is all about the land." He says after the sex workers were evicted in the afternoon of July 12, the night guard of the locality, Fazlu, phoned him. He said that rooms had to be demolished by seven in the morning or else the mayor's brother Kankon would bring his people to demolish the house themselves. He asks why he was forced to demolish his house even after the sex workers were evicted.

Back in 2006 a similar move to clear out the brothels that been taken. There are 302 decimals of land in the area and there is also a large part of the graveyard adjacent to this. An  official of the local administration tells Prothom Alo that most of the landlords within the brothel area have very little amounts of land each. They will be forced to sell their land to powerful quarters. A large market may be set up on this space.

The mayor has said he would handover the property to the owners after scrutinising the documents. However, those not closely associated with the mayor, apprehend that they will not get their land back or will be forced to sell it at a meagre price.

The evicted women: A former sex worker has two houses about five kilometres away from Tangail. There are rows of beds out in the open in front of one of these houses. On July 22 she sat in another house to relate the incidents of the eviction, when suddenly she leaves the place. Her 70-year-old mother says, "You all will hear our story and go away, but we will be killed." Another sex worker says that after she was evicted from the brothel, she was gang raped by about ten men and all her savings were taken away.

The NGO, Population Services and Training  Centre (PSTC)m has been providing health services, particularly for HIV/AIDS to the brothels all over the country since 2004. PSTC Director (Training and Communications) Akhteruzzaman, tells Prothom Alo that the incidence of STD and HIV/AIDS is double among street sex workers as compared to those within the brothels. He says the risk of HIV/AIDS will increase due to their eviction.

The Tangail brothel is over a hundred years old. About a thousand people resided here, including over 900 sex workers, 129 children and others. They are now all on the streets, at a loss of where to go and what to do. One of the sex workers taking refuge with an NGO, says, "Arrange some sort of local business for me so I can earn a living, or else give me a bottle of poison so I can die."