LG’s tough talk must become a sustained, society-wide campaign
While addressing a massive gathering at SK Stadium in Bandipora during a padyatra organised under the ‘J&K Nasha Mukt Abhiyan’ on Monday, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s stark warning that narco-terror and drug abuse are now the “biggest threat” to Jammu and Kashmir is not mere rhetoric. It is an acknowledgement that the UT faces a silent war, one that seeps into homes, schools and streets, corroding the social fabric from within. When the head of the administration says there will be “no safe haven” for drug trafficking and narco-terror in J&K, it underlines the gravity of a menace that is no longer at the margins but at the centre of our security and social crisis. The statistics shared by the LG in Bandipora: around 800 FIRs registered in just 45 days, and nearly 950 arrests are staggering. They reveal both the scale of the crackdown and the depth of the problem. The registration of about 850 cases under the PIT-NDPS Act, attachment of properties linked to peddlers, and even the seizure of driving licences and passports indicate an administration willing to use the toughest legal tools available. This is necessary and overdue. For far too long, drug cartels and their financial backers operated in the shadows, feeding off despair and unemployment. But enforcement alone cannot win this war. The LG’s emphasis on counselling and rehabilitation is a welcome acknowledgement that the youth caught in drug abuse are, first and foremost, victims. They are the targets of an organised economy of addiction that treats Kashmiri lives as expendable. If we criminalise the user as harshly as the peddler, we risk pushing an entire generation further into darkness instead of reclaiming it. Equally important is the recognition of the nexus between drugs and terrorism. Funds channelled from trafficking into terror networks deepen instability, making narcotics not just a health crisis but a security emergency. Each packet smuggled across borders is not just a hit to a young life; it is potentially a bullet bought, a network funded, a family condemned to grief. The mass participation of women, students, civil society, NGOs and religious leaders in the ‘J&K Nasha Mukt Abhiyan’ padyatra at SK Stadium is a hopeful sign. It shows that society is willing to stand up. That spirit must now be converted into sustained vigilance: in mohallas, in schools, in mosques, in homes. Political parties, too, must rise above short-term calculations and demand transparency and accountability in every anti-drug operation. Narco-terror is not a problem the administration can solve alone. The government’s mission to make Jammu and Kashmir drug-free will succeed only when every household treats this as a personal battle, and every institution considers it a moral duty. The choice before us is stark: act together now, or watch a generation slip away in slow motion.
