Death toll in Bangladesh 'anti-drugs' crackdown rises above 50
24 May 2018 5:26 PM GMT
Dhaka: Shootouts across Bangladesh left nine alleged drug dealers dead on Thursday, police said, as authorities stepped up a crackdown that now has claimed at least 52 lives in 10 days and drawn criticism from rights groups.
The campaign comes as Bangladesh struggles to contain a surging drugs trade, particularly in methamphetamine pills known as "yaba".
However, human rights groups say many of the deaths are the result of extra-judicial killings.
Two of the nine were killed in gun battles between rival drug dealers in Magura, district police chief Ilias Hossain said.
Four people died in southeastern Feni and Comilla and a further three were killed elsewhere, officials said.
In Chittagong on Wednesday a son and a daughter held a press conference to accuse the elite Rapid Action Battalion police unit of killing their father.
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