The Excise Department of Jammu & Kashmir, teamed with local police, has kicked off a new anti‑drug campaign in South Kashmir. The goal: smash illegal cannabis and other narcotics on the major stretch of the Jammu‑Srinagar National Highway.
Mohammad Amin Bhat, an official from the excise office, told reporters on Saturday that around 350 kanals of wild cannabis had already been destroyed. “We’re cleaning hot spots from Bijbehara to Sangam and beyond,” Bhat said. The effort is part of a broader push to protect communities from the growing drug problem.
Earlier in July, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) uncovered a large drug smuggling ring in south Kashmir. The raid, carried out in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag district on July 8‑9, seized 39 kilograms of poppy straw. Two suspects were arrested, one of them a former militant. The NCB said intelligence prompted the operation, which began with a raid that recovered about 28 kilograms of poppy straw and an additional 11 kilograms from a suspect’s home.
Shabir, one of those taken into custody, had a prior history with the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). He was arrested in 1996 for terror‑related offenses and released in 2004. His name surfaces again as a second accused in the current case. He has been booked in two NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) cases: once in 2017 in Himachal Pradesh and again in Anantnag, where 523 kilograms of poppy straw were seized. He is currently out on bail in both cases.
NCB officials say these findings point to a well‑organized narcotics network that sources illegally grown poppy and moves contraband across state borders. The crackdown underscores the growing fight against drug smuggling and the effort to keep South Kashmir free from drugs and related violence.
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