In the numbers that appear to have gone up, the J&K Police has said to have arrested 553 individuals in various drug-related activities in the last six years. These numbers are only from the summer capital Srinagar, while as at least 145 such arrests were made only this year. The police said that it has been very successful in controlling the drug peddling in tough times of COVID-19 and has a very good record of unearthing the drug network in Srinagar city. “81 persons were arrested in 2015 followed by 36 in 2016, 83 in 2017, 82 in 2018, 126 in 2019 and 145 in 2020 (so far),” police said. It said that acting tough on the drug peddlers and their network, Srinagar police has detained various notorious drug peddlers under Public Safety Act (PSA) to serve a deterrent to all the persons involved in drug peddling as to ensure a drug-free Srinagar. “Srinagar police seeks the co-operation of the general public in eradicating the menace of the drug from society by assisting the police in breaking the chain of drug peddling and sharing a real-time information with them so that the persons involved in drug peddling are booked under law,” the police said. The police have also appealed to the citizens, social activists, religious leaders to educate the youth about the ill-effects of drugs on a person and the society at large. The City police have also claimed to have recovered a huge consignment of illegal narcotic drugs from Tankipora locality. “Acting on a specific information received from a reliable source about illegal drug peddling by some suspects, police party led by SHO Shaheed Gunj and SP City South Zone Srinagar raided the house of one suspect namely Fayaz Ahmad Nadaf son of Abdul Ahad Nadaf residence Tankipora Srinagar,” a police spokesperson said in a statement. During a thorough search, police said, a huge consignment of an illegal narcotic drug, heroin-like substance weighing approximately three kilograms was recovered from the house of the suspect and arrested on the spot. In this regard, police said, a case under FIR No. 159/2020 under Sections 8/21 NDPS was registered at police station Shaheed Gunj and investigation was taken up. Police said that the subject was put to sustained questioning and has “revealed that he was in touch with a Punjab-based handler @Topy Singh and on his direction one suspect from north-Kashmir handed over the same consignment to him for safe custody and some quantity of which was later on to be transported to Punjab and rest to be distributed among youths in Srinagar city.” The investigations, the police said, is in its initial stage and narcoterrorism angle is also being looked into, while as more arrests are expected in this regard.
