How Jammu and Kashmir is the real drug hub of north India

As part of a nationwide drive for destruction of seized drugs under the “Nasha Mukta Abhiyan”, about 6727 kg of seized contraband was destroyed in Jammu on 17 July 2023. This comes within a month of major seizures in the region, and recent years of perpetually increasing addiction cases in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. Notably, surpassing Punjab, J&K has now become the drug hub in North India. The toughened handling of terror activities and crackdown on terror financing routes, especially post abrogation of J&K’s special status in 2019, has added impetus to this trend. Security agencies have raised concerns and undertaken retaliatory initiatives – but the issue is far from controlled. While funds generated from this smuggling fuel the drying finances of terrorists in the Valley, the growing number of addicts among J&K’s youth is damaging the youth population still emerging from years of conflict and its after-effects. This “double-edged sword” staring at J&K’s present and future poses serious challenges at all three levels: national security, economic development and reconstruction, and societal wellbeing. It must be recalled that consumption of drugs is not new to the region. However, it has historically been limited to the use of cannabis. Of late, heroin and medicinal opioids, whose origins have been traced back to Pakistan by Indian officials, have seen an abrupt rise – thus raising concerns. Pakistan has been one of the largest suppliers of pure heroin globally for a long time. Proximity to the infamous ‘golden crescent’ has always rendered this region vulnerable. Since 1995, trafficking of drugs spiked across the Line of Control, through J&K, and onwards to the rest of  India – which was also the time when violence in J&K was at its peak. `The route through LoC in Jammu sector’s Ranbirsingh Pura, Samba, and Akhnoor was used to transit into Punjab. Over the years, the inlet through Jammu’s Rajouri and Sunderbani (reaching up to the Jammu district through the Jammu-Poonch highway) has become the most active route. Currently, approximately 8 per cent of the region’s population is addicted to a drug of some kind. This totals to an estimated 10 lakh people out of its 2.5 crore population. With every addict estimated spending approximately 88,000 rupees a month and there being some 54,000 addicts as recorded in 2022 – the threat is real, and damaging. Two facts need consideration here. One, according to Annual Reports of the Narcotics Control Bureau, of this spike was prominently noted since 2017, and increasingly since 2019. Two, most seizures occurring since 2017 were originally counter-terrorism operations, and not aimed at drug seizure. This can be explained by a series of events that have strained terror financing conduits in succession. The demonetization of higher bank currency notes was abruptly announced by the Government of India in November 2016. All INR 500 and INR 1000 currency notes seized to be legal tender. This directly hit terror financing through Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) which were a known source. In 2017, the maximum number of fake currency notes in the country were seized from J&K. Further, in 2018, Pakistan entered the FATF grey-list that forced the country to take active steps to cut some logistical and operational support to anti-India terrorism. Over 1000 properties of India-centric terror outfits were confiscated, for instance. Further, in 2019, the historic internal reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir was carried out, making J&K a Union Territory and thus offering support to the Union Government and Security Agencies to monitor security situations.. Each of these hardened security crackdown on every source of terror financing thus raising desperations among terror outfits such as were visible in delivery of weapons across the border through drones and emergence of frontal organisations like The Resistance Front. Smuggling of narcotics to generate funds picked up against this background. The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in 2021 only accelerated the issue. Links with Pakistan have been established through identification of marking indicating Pakistani origin in most of these seizures. In fact, most seized heroin tested has been found to be of Afghan origin, which is suspected to have been processed in Pakistan and smuggled to India. Statements by former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself accepting the use of narcotics smuggling as a means of destabilising India, as early as in the 1990s, only adds context to the contemporary scenario.     While heightened monitoring and rehabilitation efforts have been furthered by the government agencies, a more society-led effort is required to resolve this issue. As certain scholars mention, the role of the village elders would be crucial in dealing with the drug menace that is threatening the national security, economic development and reconstruction, as well as the overall societal wellbeing in the Union Territory. The writer is an independent security analyst. She has previously served as Research Assistant at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) – a Think Tank of the Indian Army. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. 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