Basit Riaz Beig
Jammu and Kashmir’s 100-day anti-drug campaign came to a close on Tuesday, but the message from the government was that the fight is only beginning.
Addressing the valedictory function of the “Nasha Mukt Jammu & Kashmir Abhiyaan” at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre in Srinagar, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said the campaign had entered a decisive phase in the fight against drugs and narco-terror, and warned that traffickers would continue to face the strictest action under the law. He said he had travelled to all 20 districts during the campaign and met families affected by addiction, calling it, in his six years in Jammu and Kashmir, the largest public movement he had witnessed.
According to the figures Sinha cited, the 100-day drive resulted in 20,292 FIRs registered, 92 drug networks dismantled, 4,474 drug hotspots identified, and properties worth ₹188.9 crore linked to the narcotics trade attached. Action was also initiated under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act, with recommendations made for the suspension or cancellation of 884 driving licences and 687 vehicle registration certificates, the impounding of 64 passports, and the suspension of eight arms licences belonging to those linked to drug cases.
The tally marks the culmination of a shift in the government’s own framing of the drug problem — from a narrower law-and-order issue to what Sinha, at the campaign’s launch, called a “whole-of-government” and “whole-of-society” response. The University of Jammu, in outlining its own role in the campaign, described that vision as combining a zero-tolerance approach to trafficking with care, compassion and rehabilitation for those already affected by addiction.
That framing became formal policy on April 11, 2026, when the 100-day campaign was launched across the Union Territory. It was structured around three broad pillars — supply-side enforcement, awareness and prevention, and rehabilitation — run in parallel rather than as separate tracks, with Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities forming the backbone of the prevention effort at the district level.
On enforcement, action was coordinated through the Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD), a body with meetings chaired by Deputy Commissioners in districts including Jammu, Kathua and Anantnag to review inter-departmental progress, alongside the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The campaign was described as being overseen by the Lieutenant Governor and the Director General of Police, with a particular focus on the links between drug trafficking and regional security.
On prevention, government figures put the number of awareness programmes run in schools, colleges and rural areas during the campaign at more than 30,000, backed by a dedicated digital portal, nashamuktjk.org, offering counselling resources and an online pledge. The University of Jammu built its own 100-day action plan spanning its teaching departments, NSS and NCC units and offsite campuses as part of that effort.
Kulgam district’s experience over the 100 days illustrates how the campaign worked at the local level. Deputy Commissioner Shahzad Alam launched the district’s drive on April 11 with a pledge ceremony, a padyatra and a plantation and blood donation drive. On the enforcement side, police in Kulgam registered FIRs 87 and 88 of 2026 after destroying illicit poppy cultivation found at Babapora and Bonigam, and a separate FIR after recovering 2.615 kilograms of poppy-straw-like substance from a man stopped at a checkpoint near Dooru — six FIRs against illegal poppy cultivation in total, along with the seizure of 21 bottles of illicit liquor.
On rehabilitation, Sinha has said the campaign’s approach is to pair strict action against traffickers with care and compassion for those already affected by addiction, treating de-addiction and treatment as running alongside enforcement rather than following it. The government’s public reporting on the campaign leans far more heavily toward enforcement statistics — FIRs, arrests, property attachments — than toward rehabilitation outcomes, which have so far been described mainly in terms of intent rather than measured results.
Speaking at Tuesday’s valedictory event, Sinha placed the campaign in a longer timeline, noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the national Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan four years earlier, and that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had continued to review anti-drug efforts with states and Union Territories since then. He said Jammu and Kashmir Police had already been acting against narcotics for years, but that a rising number of young people falling into addiction had prompted the administration to launch a dedicated, time-bound campaign this year.
The unresolved question is what happens after the 100 days end. FIR counts, dismantled networks and property attachments are enforcement metrics — they measure activity, not outcomes. They do not, by themselves, show whether fewer young people are starting to use drugs, whether families are getting timely support, or whether people who complete treatment are able to stay off drugs afterward. Sinha’s own framing at the closing event — describing the 100 days as “just the beginning” of a sustained mission — suggests the administration itself sees the campaign’s real test as what it becomes once the enforcement numbers stop being the headline.
