The seizure of 45 kilograms of heroin at two separate border areas in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday reveals how narco-terror is becoming a big threat from Pakistan not only in terms of sustenance of terrorist activities but also in terms of its impact on youth in the region.
In the first incident, three Pakistani intruders were gunned down by the BSF as it scuttled a major narcotic smuggling attempt and recovered 36 kg heroin worth crores of rupees along the International Border in Samba sector of Jammu. This was the fourth narcotic smuggling bid foiled by the BSF troops along the border in Jammu region this year.
On the same day, J&K police seized nine kilograms of heroin in the Uri sector of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
“The seizure of narcotics in several incidents in Uri during the last few years suggests that multiple networks are involved in narcotic trade. We are investigating how such networks operate and how they are interconnected here and across the border with their counterparts,” SSP Baramulla, Rayees Bhat, told DH.
According to sources, the two recoveries of heroin on Sunday were worth over Rs 200 crore in the international market.
“In the wake of serious crackdown by the law enforcement agencies against the Hawala operators, Pakistan based agencies used cross-LoC trade and narcotics to fund the terrorism and unrest in the Valley. However, since early 2019 when the cross LoC trade was shut down, Narco-trade seems to have become the exclusive route to finance terrorism and unrest,” they said.
“As is observed across the globe, huge money is transacted between the recipients and suppliers of drugs in the world of narcotics which as per general observation is missing in the narco-trade between recipients in Kashmir Valley and suppliers in Pakistan. It is such nuances that differentiate the existence of narco-trade elsewhere in the world from narco-terrorism in Kashmir,” they said.
A senior doctor at a drug de-addiction center in Srinagar said that after selling illusions and Azadi dreams, Pakistan has now started selling drugs to Kashmiri youth.
“The huge seizures of heroin by police and other security agencies have proven it beyond doubt that people sitting across the LoC want to have a drug addict in every house in Kashmir to fight the proxy war which commenced in 1990,” he added.
As per the J&K police data, in 2020 over 152 kg of heroin and 49.7 kg of brown sugar were recovered from different parts of J&K. In 2020, the police had registered 1,132 cases and arrested 1672 people involved in drug trafficking.
The narco-terror plot got exposed largely in 2018. In July that year, the then J&K police chief Shesh Pal Vaid had termed drug menace a “bigger challenge” than terrorism in the region. His successor Dilbagh Singh says drug menace is as big a challenge as terrorism and asserts that police was doing its bit to control the menace.
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