Members of Rapid Action Battalion arrested three people with 19,000 yaba tablets after intercepting a Dhaka bound bus in the city early yesterday.

Two alleged drug traders were killed in separate “gunfights” with police in Trishal and Tarakanda upazilas early yesterday, days after they were allegedly picked up by the law enforcers.

Police recovered the bullet-hit body of a man in Damurhuda upazila of Chuadanga yesterday, two days after he had allegedly been picked up by plainclothes men.

A suspected drug trader was killed in a “gunfight” with Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in Sherpur on Tuesday night and an alleged drug dealer was injured in another “gunfight” in Mohammadpur of Dhaka early yesterday.

Five more people, including a female, were shot dead in the last four days, in what police claimed were mostly incidents of feuds between various drug-dealing factions.

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.

"The commissioner has not done anything ... Why are you killing him?" Repeating these words, a female voice kept screaming over a mobile phone moments after hearing a gunshot during a phone call, according to an unverified audio clip.

A record 14 people were killed in so-called shootouts in a single day yesterday, taking the tally of those killed in such incidents to 122, amid the countrywide anti-narcotics drive which has been going on for the last 16 days.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said steps would be taken if any innocent became a victim of the ongoing anti-narcotics drive.

Born and brought up in Chhoba Patti in Dhaka's Gendaria, Rahima used to sell small packets of ganja and heroin inside the squalid slum. Two decades down the line, she now owns at least 10 buildings, moves around in luxurious cars and has big, fat bank accounts.

There seems to be no end in sight of the “gunfights” that are leaving alleged drug peddlers killed during the ongoing anti-narcotics drive across the country.

Around 300 Rab personnel from different battalions with dog squads and a bomb disposal unit cordoned off the Geneva Camp in Mohammadpur yesterday morning.