Srinagar: Apart from routine policing and being actively involved in counterinsurgency operations, Jammu and Kashmir police is fighting an equally aggressive war against the drug abuse and the drug mafia.
DGP Shesh Paul Vaid, calls it a “bigger challenge” than fighting militancy. “Narcotic terrorism is a big challenge to us,” he said. Also, the J&K police is perhaps the only police organisation in the country, which runs drug de-addiction centres independently.
Official statistics point out that drug seizures have increased in the recent past. A couple of consignments had even come from across the border. So far, 137 kg of heroin, including 66.5 kg smuggled from PoK in a cross-LoC truck, 175 kg of charas, 760.5 kg of cannabis (bhang), 164.5 kg of ganja, besides opium and cocaine in small qualities were seized by the police from across the state. Other seizures include 2,61,539 psychotropic substances and around 8,150 kg of opium derivatives.
As many as 1,213 people were arrested on charges of being involved in 888 cases of drug smuggling and drug abuse, the police said.
Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti recently asked the police to “chase drug-peddlers with full force and secure the innocent youth from the clutches of drug addiction”.
Mr Vaid told this newspaper, “I want a drug-free state. Drug abuse is like a termite which will chew the whole society and, therefore, it has to go. Our children have to stay here and flourish and I’m trying to make every cop to understand it.”
Senior Intelligence officers with the Narcotics Control Bureau said that India has become a hub of drugs as it is located in the midst of the Golden Triangle and Golden Quadrilateral. J&K, they added, has become a transit route for drugs that are being transported from here to other destinations.
Mr Vaid said, “We need everybody to join hands, including the civil society, lawyers’ fraternity and judiciary because at times the accused are released on small technical failures. They must realise it is a fight against a mafia that is out to destroy the society.” The J&K police is running drug de-addiction centres in Srinagar and Jammu. Also smaller ones are run in Anantnag and Baramulla in the Valley and Kathua and Udhampur in Jammu region. Mr Vaid wants to open more such facilities to treat the victims.
J&K’s proximity to Pakistan and Punjab makes it vulnerable to smuggling. “One part of it is narco-terrorism being unleashed from across the border,” Mr Vaid said. For example, the seizure of 66 kg of heroin from a cross-LoC truck at Uri earlier this year. People from the Valley, Delhi and Kolkata were involved in the case. Mr Vaid added some consignments seized in Jammu areas had Afghanistan markings on them.
From neighbouring Punjab, both the Valley and Jammu region are being attacked an inflow of pharmaceutical drugs such as proxyvons and various other psychotropic substances. The cultivation of poppy and cannabis has increased manifold in the southern districts. The produce is meant for consumption in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan etc.
Ironically, apart from cannabis, heroin and pharmaceutical drugs, it is petrol, which is the darling of drug addicts mainly in the Jammu region and the doctors at Jammu’s Government Psychiatry Hospital term it as an alarming new trend in drug addiction. They warned that petrol addiction is very dangerous as it hits the brain directly and the person indulging in it gets seizures (fits). Proxymon, thinner fluid, which comes with Typewriter whitener, boot polish and Corex are also increasingly being used by drug addicts in Jammu. Typerwriter thinner fluid has hydrocarbons in it and the drug users pour it on the handkerchiefs and inhale it. The doctors also say that poppy husk or Bhukki is the most common substance abuse among low strata in the society in the region.
Some studies have reported that tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, benzodiazepines, opiates such as codeine, heroin and morphine, brown sugar, inhalants, glue, paint thinner, petrol and shoe polish are the major drugs of abuse in the state. The Valley’s psychiatrists who treat hundreds of patients on daily basis said the nearly three-decade turmoil has also taken a huge role in pushing many youth to drugs. “Many youth who have seen the worst unfolding around them or became victims themselves turned to drugs as a means to escape the pain,” said Dr Wahid Khan.
But Mr Vaid said that it was inflow of heroin, brown sugar and other drugs from across the borders, which is “more dangerous”. He said, “It is involvement on international level, which is more dangerous”.
