Gun, powder: Security forces have seized large amounts of drugs and arms from several places in Jammu and Kashmir in the past few years.
Gun, powder: Security forces have seized large amounts of drugs and arms from several places in Jammu and Kashmir in the past few years.
Gun, powder: Security forces have seized large amounts of drugs and arms from several places in Jammu and Kashmir in the past few years.
Gun, powder: Security forces have seized large amounts of drugs and arms from several places in Jammu and Kashmir in the past few years.
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 Rs5 lakh and fetches nearly Rs5 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 Rs20 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 Rs1.15 crore in cash and 21kg of heroin, valued at Rs100 crore. They were from different parts of Handwara.
Further investigation found that money from the drugs sale was funnelled to groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and others. G.V. Sundeep Chakravarthy, then a senior superintendent of police, described Iftikhar as a drug smuggler with a criminal history. “The drugs came from across the LoC and were distributed not only in Jammu and Kashmir, but also in markets beyond,” he said.
As other states were involved, the Union home ministry handed over the investigation to the National Investigation Agency, which filed a fresh FIR under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Seven more members of the module―six from different parts of Kashmir and one Romesh Kumar from Jammu―were apprehended. Working on Kumar’s revelations, the NIA recovered Rs91 lakh, made from the sale of narcotics, from a pit in a field in Guruwal. Afaq Ahmad Wani, a Baramulla Central Cooperative Bank manager, was apprehended on July 16, 2020.
The call of terror: Security forces have found that some women are also involved in the narco-terror network.
On December 5, the NIA filed a charge-sheet against the accused in the special NIA court in Jammu. “The investigation revealed the accused’s involvement in cross-border smuggling and distribution of heroin in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country, procuring narcotics from their contacts in Pakistan,” read the charge-sheet. “Accused Iftikhar and Peer had made multiple visits to Pakistan between 2016 and 2017, meeting operatives associated with the LeT and the Hizbul Mujahideen.” Peer, Iftikhar and Wani, who were all government employees, were dismissed for their ‘anti-national activities’.
Two weeks later, a similar group was discovered in Baramulla. The police arrested two men, from whom they seized 13.5kg of heroin worth about Rs65 crore. They used to traffic drugs and supply arms to terrorists, and had a connection to handlers in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
To curb the menace, the Jammu and Kashmir’s State Investigation Agency (SIA), along with other security agencies, intensified their efforts and found several more leads. On November 2, 2021, the arrest of one Adil Shah in Kupwara uncovered a nine-member narco-terror group operating near the LoC. Seven were apprehended; two were operating from PoK. The case was transferred to the NIA, which filed a charge-sheet in a special NIA court in Baramulla on April 30, 2022. The charge-sheet said that the nine accused were part of a well-organised plan to procure arms, ammunition, and narcotics from across the LoC and to distribute these to militants in Kashmir. The gang was collaborating with operatives in Pakistan and was using the money from drugs sales to raise funds in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India, to further militant activity.
A fortnight after this gang was busted, the police intercepted a cash consignment from a drug trafficker on its way to Kashmir from Punjab. They found Rs43 lakh in the vehicle, and also established a connection between drug traffickers in Punjab and Jaish-e-Mohammad. The SIA filed a charge-sheet on July 28, 2022, at the NIA court in Jammu, naming Jaish-e-Mohammad commander Ashiq Nengroo, alias Ashiq Molvi, among others.
R.R. Swain | Salil Bera
Eight days later, the police intercepted a truck going from Srinagar to Punjab, seizing 52kg of heroin. Assistant Director General of Police Mukesh Singh said good intelligence led to the arrests. “The SHO of Jhagar police station, Devinder Singh, got an input about an attempt to smuggle a big consignment of heroin,” he said. “He set up a check post and started checking vehicles from Srinagar to Jammu.” He said a truck with a Haryana registration tried to evade the checkpoint but was chased down. “The driver fled but the co-driver was arrested,” he said.
Mukesh Singh claimed the consistent ‘1999’ markings on the heroin consignments suggested potential links to Pakistan. Earlier such consignments, believed to be from Pakistan, have had the same marking, he said.
A few months later, in an operation led by SSP Mohita Sharma, 30kg of cocaine worth Rs300 crore was found in a car in Ramban. Two people were arrested, and the investigation led the police to the involvement of international drug traffickers. “It was the first such case in Jammu and Kashmir where all backward and forward linkages were established,” said Sharma. “The cash that changed hands was recovered.” She said the extradition process would be started against those involved and red corner notices would be issued.
Notably, the operations in 2022 also unveiled a disturbing reality―the involvement of women in the narco-terror network. The SIA found that Rubeena Nazir, a young woman in Sopore, was leading a drug-smuggling group of 19 individuals, six of them from PoK. Investigation revealed that the smuggled drugs not only fuelled criminal activities, but also financed separatist plans. The SIA uncovered a link between the group’s PoK-based members and Ishfaq Mir, a prisoner in Srinagar’s Central Jail. Mir, a resident of Sopore, communicated with the network’s handlers in PoK using covertly acquired phones.
“Rubeena played a pivotal role,” said police sources. “She oversaw drug and weapon movements, managed finances, and provided support to families of separatists facing legal issues. Acting as a leader, she effectively supervised all aspects of the group.”
Sources said that, currently, there are 14 women in Jammu and Kashmir involved in drug trafficking. One of them, from Jammu’s Shastri Nagar, was in frequent contact with handlers in Pakistan through WhatsApp. Another woman, Jano Bibi, known as ‘Bhabhi’, apparently has direct ties to drug lords and received instructions from Pakistan.
More shocking news was to follow. On December 5, 2022, 17 people, including five policemen and a political activist, were apprehended in Kupwara and Baramulla for their involvement in narco-terrorism. Investigation identified Shakir Ali Khan, a handler based in Pakistan, as the primary narcotics supplier. His son, Tahmeed, admitted to routinely transporting narcotics to Kupwara for distribution. Shakir had crossed the LoC in the early 1990s, initially joining militant ranks and later collaborating with the Hizbul Mujahideen in Keran near the LoC. Owing to mounting pressure from security forces, Shakir had returned to PoK.
Crucially, earlier in the year, the Army had intercepted an attempt to smuggle drugs from PoK to Poonch on May 30. The police arrested three men with 30kg drugs and 20kg explosives. Later, the SIA apprehended a handler of the network in Delhi. “His arrest unveiled the entire network,” said SSP Shobit Saxena. “He was connected to Mohammad Liaquat, a local store owner in Poonch working for handlers in Saudi Arabia.”
All accused in the case, except those abroad, have been arrested and charge-sheeted. “We discovered that drug smugglers of Punjab are trying to operate in Jammu and Kashmir because of the lure of money,” said Saxena. “Gopi Mahal, alias Amarjeet Singh, an accused in one of the cases, is absconding. We have also found a Punjab connection in three other cases.” The home and foreign ministries have sought the deportation of six individuals―three each in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Alarmed by the involvement of handlers across the LoC in fostering addiction and narco-terrorism in Kashmir, police in Baramulla had, on July 16, 2023, apprehended 318 drug peddlers and seized a substantial haul. The operation revealed the role of handlers from across the LoC in fostering addiction in Kashmir. “Our goal is a drug-free Baramulla,” said SSP Amod Ashok Nagpure. On September 9, the SIA said it had arrested one Muhammad Sharief Chechi from Uri. A source said he was an aide of former minister Jatinder Singh alias Babu Singh, who was arrested in 2022 in a hawala case. The source added that, after the involvement of the former minister was unearthed, several investigators were pursuing multiple leads crisscrossing terror financing modules, narcotics syndicates and separatist networks.
Given the dangers posed, there is likely to be an intense crackdown on narco-terror this year. On January 17, DGP Swain warned that individuals involved in the menace would be treated like terrorists. “We will be doing a massive mapping,” he said, “and categorising the narco-dealers like we have classified terrorists in the A, B and C categories. We will soon be able to frame a list of narcotics dealers―A, B and C.”