As narco-terrorism from Pakistan has emerged as a huge challenge for the government in the Valley, Jammu and Kashmir police said that it will attach properties of those involved in drug trafficking under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
“People involved in the drug trade will be dealt with strictly and no one will be spared. We will start property attachments of those involved in drug trafficking under the NDPS Act,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Srinagar, Rakesh Balwal said.
He said this year 222 persons have been arrested for drug trafficking in Srinagar city and 30 among them have been slapped with Public Safety Act (PSA). “132 FIRs have been lodged while 21 accused have been detained under PIT-NDPS Act,” the city police chief said.
A recent survey by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre in AIIMS had revealed that over six lakh people in Jammu and Kashmir were victims of drug abuse. As per Census 2011, J&K’s has population of 1.25 crore.
Earlier this year, &K became the first Union Territory in the country to have a comprehensive drug de-addiction policy envisaged to weed out substance abuse from society. J&K is in close range to “Golden Crescent”, a name given to South Asia’s opium-producing countries like Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan which produce 80 per cent of the world’s opium.
According to police, Pakistan has used a dual strategy of sending drugs as well as weapons to keep the conflict alive and tear the core of the valley’s social fabric. In recent years heroin smuggled from Pakistan is the most widely used opioid all over Kashmir.
“The cross-border smuggling of narcotics provides oxygen to terrorism via finances and, if not curbed soon, could ruin the lives of the region’s youth. The finances generated from drugs such as heroin fund separatists’ activities and spread other centrifugal tendencies,” a senior police officer told DH.
J&K police chief Dilbagh Singh Sundy in July this year termed narco-terrorism as the biggest challenge from Pakistan. “Our neighbour (Pakistan) is not happy with the peaceful atmosphere in J&K and wants to promote narco-terrorism by luring the youth towards drugs and use the money earned out of narco-sale to fuel terrorism,” he said.