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Srinagar: Around two million people out of the 12 million population in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir are battling heroin addiction, a crisis largely attributed to India\u2019s brutal occupation of the territory.<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, a report by Al Jazeera has highlighted the devastating impact of drug addiction on the youth in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, surpassing even Indian Punjab.<\/p>\n
Notably, Sikh and Kashmiri intellectuals consider the rising addiction a deliberate strategy by India to weaken the ongoing freedom struggles in these regions.<\/p>\n
The Al Jazeera report states, “In August 2023, an Indian Parliament report estimated that nearly 1.35 million of Kashmir\u2019s 12 million people were drug users.”<\/p>\n
The report also shared the ordeal of a 24-year-old Kashmiri girl struggling with drug addiction as an example of the worsening crisis.<\/p>\n
Key excerpts from the report go on as:<\/p>\n
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Afiya\u2019s frail fingers pick at the loose threads of her worn dark-brown sweater as she sits at the edge of her bed in the rehabilitation ward of Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital in Indian-administered Kashmir\u2019s main city of Srinagar.<\/p>\n
With faded and stained clothes hanging loosely on her thin frame, eyes down-cast, she says: \u201cI used to dream of flying high above the mountains, touching the blue sky as a flight attendant. Now, I am stuck in a nightmare, high on drugs, fighting for my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Afiya, 24, is only one among thousands of people addicted to heroin in the disputed territory of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir where a growing epidemic of drug addiction is consuming young lives.<\/p>\n
A study by the psychiatry department of the Government Medical College in Srinagar found that Kashmir had overtaken Punjab, the northwestern Indian state battling a drug crisis for decades, in the number of cases of narcotics use per capita.<\/p>\n
In August 2023, an Indian Parliament report estimated that nearly 1.35 million of Kashmir\u2019s 12 million people were drug users, suggesting a sharp rise from the nearly 350,000 such users in the previous year as estimated in a survey by the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) at the Government Medical College, Srinagar.<\/p>\n
The Isurvey also found that 90 percent of drug users in Kashmir were aged between 17 and 33.<\/p>\n
SMHS, the hospital Afiya is in, attended to more than 41,000 drug-related patients in 2023 \u2013 an average of one person brought in every 12 minutes, a 75 percent increase from the figure in 2021.<\/p>\n
Experts say chronic unemployment \u2013 triggered by the territory losing its special status in 2019, quickly followed by the COVID-19 pandemic \u2013 fuelled stress and despair, driving Kashmiri youth towards substance abuse.<\/p>\n
As a result, says Dr Yasir Rather, a professor in charge of psychiatry at IMHANS, hospitals and treatment centres are stretched.<\/p>\n
More than six years ago, Afiya was a bright high-school student dreaming of becoming a flight attendant. After passing her 12th grade with impressive 85 percent marks, she responded to a job advertisement posted by a leading private Indian airline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t the real me lying in this bed,\u201d Afiya tells the Arab channel. \u201cI used to drive my car. I was a stylish woman known for my beautiful handwriting, intellect and strong communication skills. My quick memory made me stand out. I could recall details effortlessly, never missing a thing. I was independent and confident.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now, I lie here motionless, like a dead fish, as my siblings put it. Even they can\u2019t ignore the smell that lingers around me.\u201d
\nShe says she was selected for the airline job and sent to New Delhi for training. \u201cI stayed there for two months. It felt like a new beginning, a chance to fly, to escape.\u201d<\/p>\n
But her soaring dreams were dashed to the ground in August 2019 when the Indian government scrapped the special status of Kashmir and imposed a months-long lockdown to discourage street protests against the shock move.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people, including top politicians, were arrested and thrown in jail. Internet and other basic rights were also suspended, as New Delhi brought the region under its direct control for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation back home was grim. There was no communication with my family, no phones, no way to know if they were safe. I couldn\u2019t stay in New Delhi any more, disconnected like that. I took a week\u2019s leave and went home,\u201d Afiya said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dream quickly turned into a nightmare. The euphoria faded and was replaced by a ruthless hunger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeroin\u2019s grip is merciless. It\u2019s not just a drug, it becomes your life,\u201d says Afiya<\/p>\n
\u201cHeroin has spread far and wide, and we are seeing a disturbingly high number of patients affected by it,\u201d says IMHANS\u2019s Rather.<\/p>\n
The physical toll on her body due to addiction has been severe. Open wounds on her legs, arms and belly ooze blood.<\/p>\n
It is worth mentioning here that the Indian Army and its intelligence agencies are reportedly behind the growing drug menace in the occupied territory. The crisis has escalated at an alarming rate under the BJP regime, as part of a larger strategy to weaken Kashmiri youth and suppress the ongoing freedom movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Srinagar: Around two million people out of the 12 million population in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir are battling heroin addiction, a crisis largely attributed to India\u2019s brutal occupation of the territory. According to Kashmir Media Service, a report by Al Jazeera has highlighted the devastating impact of drug addiction on the youth in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":170679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-occupied-jammu-and-kashmir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/03\/2.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170681,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170678\/revisions\/170681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}