More than 100 dead & around 12,000 arrested as Bangladesh Drug War escalates

May 29, 2018

National Human Rights Commission has expressed "grave concern" over the killings.

More than 100 alleged drug dealers have been killed & thousands detained in Bangladesh in the past fortnight in a Philippines-style narcotics crackdown that has raised concerns about extrajudicial killings.

Police said 10 more alleged traffickers were gunned down in the early hours of Tuesday, some in shootouts with police & others in so-called gang wars between dealers.

A total of 102 suspected traffickers have been killed since Bangladesh launched an aggressive war on drugs in mid-May this year, to smash the surging trade in yaba, a cheap pill combining methamphetamine & caffeine.

"We're saying that this war will continue until we bring it under complete control," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said.

Around 12 thousand accused dealers have been arrested & tried in special courts since the crackdown began on 15th May, with many handed jail sentences of 7 days to 6 months, he added.

The Home Minister said there was "no question" that those killed were drug dealers, despite allegations by rights groups that even innocent people had died.

"Most of those who were killed had guns. They opened fire as soon as they saw the Police," he said. "They're not good people. There are 10 to 12 (criminal) cases against each of them."

However, the National Human Rights Commission this week expressed "grave concern" at the mounting death toll & sounded the alarm over alleged extrajudicial killings.

The Rapid Action Battalion - an elite police unit in charge of the sweep, said all 24 people killed by its forces were "top drug traders" , but provided no evidence.

1 of those killed was a Councillor from Teknaf whom supporters say had no involvement with drugs at all.

The rest died in late-night shootouts with police or shootouts among themselves over turf & drugs, officials said.

Among those killed Tuesday were 2 alleged kingpins apparently found dead by police after a so-called drugs war in Jessore district, local police chief A.K.M Ajmal Huda told AFP.

"We found the bodies after the gunfight between 2 rival groups of drug traders," he said.

Bangladesh has really struggled to contain the trade in "yaba", with hundreds of millions of pills entering the country from Myanmar.

Last year, authorities seized a record 40 million pills but said an estimated 250-300 million others entered the market.

Source NIE