Over the past two weeks, more than 100 alleged drug dealers have been killed in police shootouts and gang-related violence in Bangladesh, worrying some critics that its anti-narcotics crackdown will turn into a “Philippine style” war on drugs.
Just on Tuesday, Bangladeshi police told the AFP that ten alleged dealers were gunned down. According to the same report, about 12,000 suspected dealers have also been arrested and tried in courts since anti-drug operations began earlier this month.
“We are saying that this war will continue until we bring it under complete control,” Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told AFP.
If that sounds like Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to you, you’re not alone. The situation in Bangladesh has drawn comparisons to the Philippines’ war on drugs in more ways than one.
Like the Philippines, Bangladesh is hoping to curb the rise of a cheap variety of methamphetamine.
But unlike the Philippines’ shabu, which is a white crystalline drug, Bangladesh’s yaba is a red pill that combines meth and caffeine.
Last year, Bangladeshi authorities seized 40 million yaba pills but they told AFP that an estimated 250 – 300 million others entered the market.
Bangladesh’s National Human Rights Commission also expressed “grave concern” over the deaths and alleged extrajudicial killings, similar to the concerns of the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights early on in Duterte’s war on drugs.
And Bangladesh’s human rights groups are right to be worried.
Two years after Duterte launched it in 2016, the Philippines’ war on drugs is still at full speed.
In April, newly-appointed Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director Oscar Albayalde said he would continue the force’s anti-drug operations known as “Oplan Tokang,” despite the thousands of deaths and criticisms it has amassed.
Yesterday, the PNP reported that as of the end of last month, 4,279 alleged drug personalities have been killed in police operations since 2016. However, groups like the Human Rights Watch say the actual number of deaths caused by the drug war is actually closer to 12,000.
The PNP maintains that those who were killed in police operations resisted arrest but past high-profile controversies have shown that this isn’t always that case.
In August, Caloocan City cops claimed to have killed 17-year-old Kian delos Santos out of self-defense but CCTV footage revealed that they were actually in control of the situation and were carrying the victim to the area where he was eventually shot.
This and other controversial cases led to virtually the entire Caloocan City police force being sacked, with about 1,200 personnel required to undergo retraining.
Careful, Bangladesh, it’s a slippery slope.
