A SYRINGE FULL OF TERROR

Security forces are planning an intense crackdown on the new challenge in Jammu and Kashmir: narco-terrorism

- TARIQ BHAT

The abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent crackdown by security forces might have weakened militancy in Kashmir, but there is a fresh threat brewing: narco-terrorism. Security forces have found that proceeds from the sale of narcotics, mostly originating in Pakistan, are being used to fund terror. This is because the conventional channels that were used to fund terror have been disrupted in the past few years.

Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police R.R. Swain said links to narco-terrorism spanned from Kashmir to Jammu, Punjab and Delhi. "The handlers have been traced to Paris, Canada and Turkey," he said. "We will reach out to handlers in other parts of the world through the Interpol." Apparently, narcotics sale can yield huge profits, which help fund terror. "One kilogram of heroin originating in Afghanistan, coming via Pakistan, costs approximately ₹5 lakh and fetches nearly ₹5 crore in the international market," said an officer investigating the narco-terror network. He added that a portion of the drugs coming from across the Line of Control is sold in Kashmir, and the rest is taken to other parts of India.

According to Union home ministry data, 72.07kg of heroin was seized in Jammu and Kashmir in 2015. This went up to more than 200kg in 2019. A senior police officer in Kashmir said that after the serious crackdown against hawala operators in recent years, Pakistani agencies were using narcotics to fund terrorism in the valley.

The connection between narcotics and terror funding surfaced during the Covid-19 pandemic. On June 11, 2020, Jammu and Kashmir Police intercepted an SUV owned by an Abdul Momin Peer at Kairo Bridge near Handwara, and seized ₹20 lakh in cash and two kilos of heroin. Subsequent arrests of Syed Iftikhar, Islam-ul-Haq, Saleem Andrabi and Muneer Ahmad Banday led to the seizure of ₹1.15 crore in cash and 21kg of heroin, valued at ₹100 crore. They were from different parts of Handwara.