4 min readSrinagarMay 9, 2026 07:58 PM IST
Over the last 10 days, the Jammu and Kashmir Police demolished at least 10 residential and commercial properties linked to alleged drug peddlers, saying the action was meant to “send a clear and unequivocal message” that those “involved in narcotics trade will face strict and visible consequences”.
However, J&K Health Minister Sakina Itoo has accused the police department, which comes under Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, of using the anti-drugs campaign as an excuse to “target the people”.
The ongoing 100-day “Nasha Mukt Jammu and Kashmir (Drug-free Jammu and Kashmir)” campaign initiated by the Lt Governor has seen several arrests and the demolition of houses and commercial complexes linked to alleged drug peddlers.
Over the last 10 days, police teams and revenue officials have demolished at least 10 houses and residential properties, mostly in south Kashmir.
While in some cases, police said these were built illegally, either on government land or without proper permission, in other cases, they said the structures were demolished as they were “acquired and developed using proceeds generated from narcotics trafficking”.
After demolishing a commercial complex comprising 15 shops at Bijbehara in south Kashmir, police had said, “During verification, it surfaced that the shopping complex had been illegally constructed on state land.” The property belonged to a “notorious drug peddler”, police said, against whom a case is registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. “Acting upon due legal process and in coordination with the concerned authorities, the illegal structure was demolished as part of ongoing efforts to dismantle the financial infrastructure of the drug syndicate…,” they said.
In another case, police said the house of an alleged drug peddler was demolished in Srinagar because it was “raised illegally on land acquired and developed using proceeds generated from narcotics trafficking”. Police further said the “action sends a clear and unequivocal message (that) properties from proceeds of drug trafficking will not be spared and those involved in the narcotics trade will face strict and visible action”.
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J&K Health Minister Sakina Itoo on Friday criticised the police action. “Don’t target the people making it (drug trafficking) an excuse,” Itoo said while talking to reporters. “If you arrest someone, where does he get these drugs from? The Home department should check that drugs don’t come here.”
Itoo warned that “bulldozing the houses, demolishing the property” will have negative consequences and called for its immediate stop.
“This is absolutely wrong,” she said, adding, “If you recover drugs or something else from someone, you demolish a property that is not even in his name, that is a property of his parents…”
She asked how drugs enter Jammu and Kashmir when the borders are manned by security forces. “You lay your hands on the people who bring it into Kashmir,” she said.
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Itoo also alleged that while demolitions and seizure of immovable assets are taking place in the Kashmir Valley, the Jammu division is spared.
“I want to ask you one question. Where is drug addiction more, Jammu or Kashmir? As a Health minister, I will give you the figures that it is more in Jammu,” she said. “If you want to control addiction, you have to control it in Jammu as well. But in Kashmir, you use it as an excuse to seize the properties, to demolish and bulldoze the houses. It is discrimination,” she added.
While there were at least 10 drug-related demolitions in the Valley in the last 10 days, there were at least four demolitions in Jammu last month. Of these, three were carried out in Rajiv Nagar on April 12 and one in Beli-Charana on the outskirts of Jammu on April 18.
