Chandigarh, Oct 2: Punjab Police has arrested over 31,000 drug smugglers and recovered more than 1,300 kg of heroin in the last seven months under the ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ campaign, officials said on Thursday.
They said a total of 20,641 FIRs were registered during this time — March 1 to October 1.
The ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ campaign was launched on March 1 to eradicate the drug menace in Punjab.
Punjab Police, on the directions of Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav, has been conducting daily operations simultaneously in all the 28 police districts since the launch of the anti-drug drive, the officials said.
Police arrested 31,478 people and recovered 1,359.5 kg of heroin from March 1 to October 1, they said.
Apart from the heroin, 437 kg of opium, 248 quintals of poppy husk, 31 kg of charas, 498 kg of ganja, 7.2 kg of ICE (crystal methamphetamine), 37 lakh intoxicant tablets and Rs 12.73 crore of drug money were recovered during this period, they said.
On Wednesday alone, 81 drug smugglers were arrested with 2.6 kg of heroin, 1.3 kg of opium, 1.34 lakh intoxicant pills and drug money worth Rs 8,110, they added.
The arrests and recovery were made during raids conducted by over 150 police teams, comprising more than 1,200 police personnel and under the supervision of 79 gazetted officers, at 392 locations across the state on Wednesday. A total of 63 FIRs were registered, police said.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has asked commissioners of police, deputy commissioners and senior superintendents to make Punjab a drug-free state.
The Punjab government has also constituted a five-member Cabinet Sub-Committee led by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema to monitor the war against drugs.
The state government has adopted a three-pronged strategy — ‘Enforcement, Deaddiction, and Prevention (EDP) — to eradicate drugs from the state.
