Decimating Narcotics Menace in J&K

Director General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, R.R. Swain is absolutely right in declaring that police will classify narco dealers in categories A,B,C respectively. He has said that the J&K police will tighten the noose around the narco dealers who are injecting poison in the society by targeting the youth. His assurance that the police will indulge in massive mapping and categorizing of the narco dealers should get the massive public support. As it makes the whole society vulnerable. It affects the present and future of the youth. It derails the youth from their career goals and spoils the families. Besides it degenerates the national human resource. That is our youth. It is a well-established fact that narcotics are primarily smuggled from across the border to run the economy based on this poison. This economy not only sustains the crime and underworld but it is the mainstay of terrorism. We have been devastated by the man-made calamity of terrorism that got catalyzed with the Cold War and then the diversion of funds from cultivation of narcotics in the Af-Pak region. How the spillover of Taliban radicalism with the implementation of Operation TOPAC led to destabilization of society in Jammu and Kashmir is well known. We are paying heavily for this turbulence. DGP has well identified that the people whose relatives are the victims of narcotics can surely help to halt this poison from spreading in the society. Various studies have clearly identified and proved the correlation between the narcotics and terrorism. And hence the term narco-terrorism aptly describes the cocktail between the two. Subversives exploit the dependence of the people on narcotics and they are easily used for the acts of terrorism. Jammu and Kashmir can’t afford to lower the guard on narco- terrorism. Having seen the worst form of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and the loss of life imposed by it. Neither the society nor the administration can’t afford to turn blind eye to this vicious problem. Over the years there has been consistent ferrying of narcotics from Punjab. J&K Police needs to increase the vigil on the borders of the union territory with Punjab. So that the narco peddlers are not given free access to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir. Locally, there was a trend to cultivate the poppy in Kashmir to cater to the demand of this poison. But from sometime it has witnessed a decline. While keeping an eye on the influx of narcotics from across the border; we must also be watchful about the local cultivation to nip this evil in the bud. Jammu and Kashmir Police has the distinction of fighting terrorism and radicalization orchestrated by Pakistan and patronized by subversives from within from so many decades at the ground zero. That makes it competent to deal aptly with the new forms of terrorism that include narco-terrorism and hybrid terrorism. A well-integrated security grid focussed on neutralisation of terrorism in all its forms is the need of the hour. It must be admitted that police on its own can’t curb this menace of narcotics that has every probability of converting into narco-terrorism. It needs the support of the civil society, NGO’s, educational institutions and religious figures. Above all, educational institutions must be kept on alert and advisories issued by the police from time to time. J&K Police must start sensitisation campaigns from school level; take it to college and university level. So that a capacity building is done to defeat the narco peddlers. Students from educational institutions will emerge as brand ambassadors of anti-narcotics campaign in the society. Jammu and Kashmir Police under the leadership of DGP R.R.Swain is doing a great national service by taking the narco peddlers head on. It needs complete social support in Jammu and Kashmir to save our youth from this poison called narcotics.