For the past two months, a man going by the alias ‘Bindas’ has been posting point-of-view videos of a person masturbating inside public buses in Nepal on Pornhub, one of the largest porn sites in the world.  

According to the account’s description, the person is 32 and based in Doha, Qatar. It’s unclear if the person posting the clips is the same man responsible for filming the videos. 

While the videos had been shared privately amongst Nepalis, it recently went viral after being posted to a number of Facebook groups. People then began to tweet about the videos, calling out the perpetrator under the #StopMasturbusing hashtag. 

Many expressed disbelief, shock and disgust over the man’s actions and demanded that the police take necessary action. 

“#StopMasturbusing its 2019 and still women are not safe in their own country own city and still people have debates on why #equality is important? So sad that i live in a country where women are proudly treated as object, WHO IS TO BE BLAME?” tweeted Priya Sigdel, former Miss Nepal Earth 2018. 

One of the videos, which caught the most attention, shows the man following a girl into an empty public vehicle. The man proceeds to sit behind her and then starts masturbating. He later ejaculates onto the female passenger’s hair.

“Inhuman human being who hide behind the camera & proved he is a jerk. This inhuman nuisance shows where this generations are heading. Travelling in a public bus is not even safe here [ in a day time.]  #StopMasturbusing @PM_Nepal,” tweeted Pooja Bista, who is an occasional contributor to various newspapers.

Following outrage over the video, the Metropolitan Police Crime Division said it had started an investigation into identifying the man. 

“We are trying to track the place from where the videos have been uploaded,” said SSP Dhiraj Pratap Singh, chief of the MPCD. “He will be arrested.”

Several other videos showing similar acts have been uploaded by the same individual on Pornhub using the email address, [email protected]. 

In one of the videos, a female passenger catches the man in action. However, she doesn’t say anything and goes to change her seat. 

How the woman in the video acted says a lot of about just how unsafe public transportation is for women, said women’s rights activist Amrita Lamsal. 

“Females want to speak up against harassment but they fear retaliation,” she said. “And why shouldn’t they? Even when perpetrators harass them in public, no one raises their voices against them.”

According to Lamsal, until and unless bystanders come forward to help and speak out, such incidents will keep repeating. 

“The government must provide separate vehicles for females,” Lily Thapa, founding chairperson of Women for Human Rights, told the Post. “Sexual harassment has reached its limit. We cannot afford any more such cases.” 

A group of women, including those from the popular Facebook groups Women’s Room Reloaded and Sisterhood Nepal, also submitted a letter to the MPCD demanding action against the perpetrator. 

“The video clearly shows that the individual has crossed all boundaries regarding respect for women. The contents have affected the prestige of the girl. The perpetrator must be arrested and strict action should be taken,” states the letter.

“Public transport is still not safe to travel on as pushing intentionally and touching the body are still prevalent. However, I don’t think if any girl would have thought that sexual harassment on public transport, which the video shows, would reach that extent. Should girls stop using public transport from now on?” asked Shruti Pandit, a student from Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus, who travels all the way from Sundarijal to Ratnapark on public transport during the early mornings for her classes.

Police, meanwhile, say they require assistance from the public to catch the perpetrator. "We are also looking for the vehicle where it all happened. It would be of a great help if the victims could approach us. We would keep their identities anonymous," said SSP Singh.