Thirty two suspected drug dealers were killed in police shootouts in the Philippines on Tuesday night, during the bloodiest 24 hours so far of a state war on drugs that has killed over 7,000 people in the last year.

The police conducted 49 “buy-bust” operations, using undercover officers to attempt to buy drugs from suspected dealers, and 14 raids, in the province of Bucalan, just north of the capital, Manila, said police superintendent Romeo Caramat.

Filipino students stage a protest rally against the war on drugs in Manila credit: EPA

Describing his forces’ actions as “one time, big time”, he said that 25 of these operations had “resulted in armed encounter” during which 32 were killed and 107 were arrested. Officers also confiscated over 200 grams of methamphetamine, 786g of marijuana, and firearms.

Mr Caramat told reporters that while the police tried to avoid casualties during their operations, that “we do not have control of the situation.”

He repeated a common line issued by the Philippine authorities, that the suspects were killed because they fought back.

“The subjects are notorious drug pushers and we all know that they are called notorious because they will refuse to be caught alive,” he said, according to local news-site, Rappler.

More than 3,200 alleged drug offenders have been killed in gunbattles with law enforcers since President Rodrigo Duterte unleashed a brutal war on drugs after coming to power last year.

Human rights groups have accused the police of acting with impunity and deliberately staging shoot-outs to kill suspects without giving them the right to a trial.

They report that at least 7,000 alleged drugs dealers and users in total have been killed, with the majority being gunned down by vigilante assassins accused of having links to the authorities. Critics of Duterte have demanded an investigation into his possible role in the violence.

Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Philippines researcher at Amnesty International said it was “extremely worrying” that the killings had picked up pace in recent weeks.

“This is another horrific milestone in President Duterte’s bloody ‘war on drugs’,” she said of Tuesday night’s death toll. “This shows clearly the urgent need to establish an international-led investigation into the carnage taking place every night.”

Phelime Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, added his voice to calls for an independent inquiry, urging the United Nations to investigate Duterte’s drugs war “slaughter.”

“Duterte’s consistent cheerleading for an unlawful killing campaign that killed at least 7,000 – and perhaps as many as 12,000 – of the country’s most poverty-stricken citizens makes him complicit in the incitement and instigation of mass killings” he said.

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Meanwhile, HRW has warned that the safety of Philippine high school and college students could be endangered by government plans to introduce random mandatory drugs tests on campus.

The ministry of education has approved a proposal to introduce drugs tests at the start of the school year to deter and determine the prevalence of drug abuse among students.

“Imposing mandatory drug testing of students when Philippine police are committing rampant summary killings of alleged drug users puts countless children in danger for failing a drug test,” said Mr Kine.

“Education officials should be protecting students, not putting them in harm’s way through mandatory drugs tests.”