Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal in the parliament says law enforcement agencies don’t kill anyone willingly in anti-narcotics drives.

Three more alleged drug peddlers were killed in “gunfights” in Rangpur, Thakurgaon and Dinajpur districts early yesterday amid the ongoing nationwide anti-narcotics drive.

The Daily Star website, which had been blocked since Friday night, was unblocked after around 18 hours yesterday, following instructions from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

Lawmaker Abdur Rahman Bodi went to Saudi Arabia, his cousin Mong Mong Sen fled to Myanmar, while his other family members whose names appeared in multiple intelligence reports as yaba godfathers left Teknaf, according to locals and law enforcement sources.

A magistrate will probe the death of slain Teknaf municipality councillor Akramul Haque, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal says.

The alleged murder of Teknaf municipality councillor Akramul Haque rang an ominous bell for the country's human rights situation, human rights defenders and activists said yesterday.

Transparency International Bangladesh has expressed deep concern over the killing of more than 100 people in “gunfights” during the ongoing nationwide anti-narcotics drive.

We tried to be in touch with them to get to know how they react to the ongoing anti-drug drive. All of them have been yaba addicts for a long time. Their phones are switched off.

Police allegedly implicated a 60-year man, Samar Krishna Chowdhury, in two cases related to narcotics and arms recovery, after being influenced by a local expatriate man.

We are talking about the body counts -- the deaths in “gunfights” in the current anti-drug war. After all, we are now witnessing the bloodiest anti-crime drive with death tolls already surpassing that of the Operation Clean Heart (57 deaths) or even the anti-militant drive after the Gulshan attack (80 deaths).

We are extremely concerned at the rising death toll in shootouts by law enforcers in countrywide anti-narcotic drives. In the last nine days alone, at least 33 alleged drug peddlers have been killed in “gunfights” according to our reports. The details around these gunfights are hazy at best, and there are contradictory accounts by police and family members and neighbours of the deceased, who have made claims of plainclothes men picking up the accused.