BANGLADESH: Anti-drug operation leads to dozens of deaths

More than 70 people have been killed by security forces in Bangladesh as part of a government anti-drug operation launched this month, officials say.  Authorities said that large-scale raids have taken place in the capital, Dhaka. Up to 100 people were detained on Saturday and several others suspected of involvement in the illegal drug trade […]

More than 70 people have been killed by security forces in Bangladesh as part of a government anti-drug operation launched this month, officials say. 

Authorities said that large-scale raids have taken place in the capital, Dhaka.

Up to 100 people were detained on Saturday and several others suspected of involvement in the illegal drug trade were shot in overnight clashes.

Activists have compared the crackdown to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs. Since the operation was launched in Bangladesh, several thousand people have been detained, while hundreds of drugs users have received fines, according to Bangladesh police and the country’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) forces. In the latest incidents, a number of suspected drugs traffickers were killed in exchanges of fire when they were either approached by RAB forces or during raids in a number of districts, officials said