Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the Government has made an assessment of the validity of claims in the media that the Bangladesh Government's war on drugs may be being used to target political opponents.

​Political figures from both major parties – the incumbent Awami League, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party – have been caught up in the recent escalation of Government of Bangladesh's war on drugs. At the present time, we see no clear pattern that would indicate the deliberate targeting of political opponents by the government in the war on drugs. I recognise the social and economic costs of illegal drug trafficking for Bangladesh and the need for effective policing to tackle this. But I remain concerned by the number of deaths in these operations. I tweeted on 6 June, I expect Bangladesh to uphold due legal process and safeguards on the use of force. I made this clear in person to Bangladeshi counterparts when in Dhaka on 1 July