Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested 1,941 people and registered 1,651 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the Kashmir Valley between 1 January and 31 October 2026, Inspector General of Police Kashmir Sujit Kumar said at his first major press conference after taking charge.[1] Police said they seized 1,711 kilograms of contraband and attached or forfeited properties worth about 1.54 billion rupees (Rs 154 crore) belonging to drug traffickers.[1] Officers froze 567 bank accounts and recovered cash in the anti-drug drive.[1] Illicit crops grown on about 2,116 kanals of land, a kanal being a local unit of about 505 square metres, were destroyed, which works out at roughly 107 hectares.[1]

The press conference was held at the Police Control Room in Srinagar.[2] Kumar said the earnings of drug kingpins, operating locally or across the border, are distributed to overground workers, though he said the exact volume of money involved was hard to specify.[3] He said narcotics entering Kashmir came both from across the border and from other states, with investigations establishing links to multiple supply routes.[3] Kumar said police were pursuing the wider network of a large drug racket uncovered in downtown Srinagar and had sent teams to Chandigarh and other states in connection with it.[3]

Kumar said people fighting drug addiction could approach any police station and would be helped without their identities being compromised, and that the police rehabilitation centre charged patients only for food and medicines where applicable.[3] Kumar said the purpose of the figures was to show that police teams were working on the ground but that enforcement alone was not enough, and he urged young people to play a constructive role in society.[2] Kumar said police were working with the government and society towards making Kashmir drug-free and cyber-safe.[4] The drive runs alongside the larger Nasha Mukt Jammu Kashmir and Nasha Mukt Bharat anti-drug campaigns.[1]