Srinagar: A narcotic dimension to violent
street protests in Kashmir valley has come to light with local
youths being lured by anti-national elements with Afghan
heroin and steroids to take to stone pelting against security
forces.
The drug factor behind the current unrest in the state
came to the fore during the interrogation of some local youths
arrested by the state police, official sources said today.
The sources said the arrested youths confessed to
addiction to drugs which was provided to them by a local
supplier in return for their participation in stone pelting
and violent protests.
After getting this information, Police immediately
swooped down on some of the localities but could manage to
pick up only one peddler Shezad from Khanyar in the downtown
area.
Police claimed that during interrogation Shazad told
them he was getting heroin from a resident of Natipora, in the
outskirts of the city, which he used to distribute among
groups of youths in downtown areas.
Some other steroids and drugs used to be also given
to the youth besides cigarettes loaded with charas, a senior
police officer claimed.
The downtown area is also home to a large number of
people who were terrorists before and now jobless after
serving their sentences.
These youths become easily vulnerable to drug abuse
encouraged by anti-national elements including separatist
organisations, police said.
In one of the raids, police seized hundreds of
disposable syringes and vials of heroins, steroids and
analgesic injections.
The police has been told by the arrested youths that
there was a well-knit network by which drugs found its way
to people in various areas in the Kashmir valley.
The drugs were provided free of cost and in return they
were asked to indulge in stone pelting on security forces, the
sources said.
PTI
