By Adil Bhat
JK News Today Commentary
Trucks intercepted with huge quantities of heroin and other drugs tell a tale that how the drugs have welded into the terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir . Now the drugs are being smuggled outside the state to fetch money for triggering the acts of terror in the state .
What happened on November 5 should serve as an eye opener. The Narcotics Control Bureau had seized 50 kg of heroin worth Rs 250 crore from an apple-laden truck in Jammu, while it was on its way to Delhi . An in-depth analysis would reveal so many things all at once that how the drug smugglers have devised the means to deliver the contraband in the national and international markets to fetch money to fund the terror.
The NCB had seized 50 packets of heroin that was loaded in the frontier town of Kupwara in northwest Kashmir . The international values of the seizures was estimated at Rs. 250 crore .
The use the cover of fruits to smuggle the drugs in the apple-laden trucks had imperatives of a clever strategy to escape the radar of police and NCB . Since the fruit trucks are allowed without making them to wait because they carry the perishable goods , this strategy worked well . That way, the smugglers patronized by the terror networks operated with greater freedom. The truck seized on November 5 may be less than the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
This was not an isolated incident of its kind. There have been big and small seizures of heroin, charas and other contraband in the state over the past few years . The National Investigation Agency had also detected and seized drugs coming from across the Line of Control via cross-LoC routes of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch- Rawlakote .
Why drugs in J&K ? This question needs an answer . There are two sets of purpose behind this kind of drug trafficking : one , the youth are being injected with drugs to lure them to terrorism ; secondly, the money gathered by selling drugs in the international market is sold to fund terrorism . The money is used to lure the vulnerable youth to militancy and also to buy weapons .
But the most startling aspect of the whole aspect is that Kashmir is being besieged by the drugs , whether it is to paralyse them and disorient them so that their disorientation could be used to promote the cult of violence . It has been observed that in many a cases of the “ fidayeen” attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, the militants were intoxicated and they would fight only under the influence of drugs as no sensible person would commit to the certain death situation .
Kashmir has not realised the gravity of the drug menace in full as yet , but the time is not far when the drug addiction being promoted among the youth – girls and boys alike – would spell a disaster.
