J&K Chief Minister Sakina Itoo on Friday (May 8, 2026) said the campaign to demolish properties and seal houses in the guise of an anti-drug initiative should stop in Kashmir.
“In Kashmir, you are demolishing properties and sealing and fixing houses. If a young person is involved, we have to shut him down and rehabilitate him. Instead, if it is a young person and the property is in his father’s name, it is sealed. This makes life difficult for the local people,” said Ms Itoo, who is a cabinet minister with several portfolios for education and health.
Questioning the J&K police’s anti-drug campaign, which has carried out large-scale sealing of properties and demolition of properties, Ms Itoo said they (police) should focus on the supply chain and ensure that drugs do not enter Kashmir. “Their job is to stop the supply chain. Don’t target local properties in the guise of an anti-drug campaign,” Ms Itoo said.
The minister also expressed concern over “more demolitions and confiscation of properties in the Kashmir valley compared to Jammu”. “As the health minister, you ask me, the drug problem is more in Jammu than in Kashmir. But the action is widespread in Kashmir,” she added.
She said that the Omar Abdullah government has already made an anti-drug policy and introduced a bill in the J&K assembly. “We, including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, are working to curb drug abuse. But driving bulldozers to people’s doorsteps is not helpful,” she added.
The opposition People’s Democratic Party trained guns on the J&K government for these demolitions. “For many Kashmiris, protection of land and property was not just a matter of election, it is personal, existential. Perhaps the only reason many voted was to protect their livelihood and ancestral heritage. Bulldozing justice without due process or due process is not governance; it is a dangerous precedent,” PDP lawmaker Waheed ur Rehman Parra said on social media, posting the demo on social media in the south.
Mr Parra said uprooting families from places held for generations was inhumane. “This demolition in Keegam, Shopian, has continued despite repeated pleas to the relevant revenue authorities. Incidents like this are exactly why our Land Legalization Act was necessary. The J&K government cannot ignore this issue by rejecting the land bill – the floodgates for demolition have been opened by denying legal protection to the poor,” Mr Parra said.
The sharp criticism of the actions of the J&K police, which falls under the command of Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha in the Union Territory (UT), by J&K parties came just days after local legislators from the ruling National Conference (NC) and PDP attended an anti-drugs rally in Srinagar at the invitation of the LG. It was the largest anti-drug rally attended by the local people of Kashmir.
Mr Sinha described the drug menace in Kashmir as “silent terrorism” and accused Pakistan of using drug money for terrorism and radicalisation.
Despite criticism from the ruling NC, the J&K Police on Friday (May 8, 2026) stepped up its crackdown on local residents, attached properties and demolished properties.
“Baramulla police in coordination with revenue authorities and Gulmarg Development Authority (GDA) demolished the shop of a notorious drug dealer in Ferozpore. The action is part of an intensified campaign to dismantle the support structures of drug smugglers’ networks and send a strong message against the menace of narcotics,” a police spokesperson said.
In south Kashmir’s Anantnag, police said illegal opium poppy cultivation was detected on Shamilat (community) land. The police also initiated seizure and seizure proceedings under Section 68-F of the NDPS Act against Bashir Ahmad Mir and his family members in Anantnag. The police said that after an investigation under Chapter VA of the NDPS Act revealed that the family had “accumulated huge movable and immovable assets disproportionate to their known legitimate sources of income”. “Investigations further revealed that these properties were jointly held by family members and are suspected to have been acquired through the proceeds of illegal narcotics trade,” police said.
In Kulgam, the police said that the police and revenue authorities have acquired “kahcharai (so-called community land) land totaling five kanals in Oriel village under the unauthorized occupation of a drug dealer”. Police said the acquired land has an estimated market value of around ₹60 crore.
“Strict action against individuals involved in drug trafficking will continue and all illegal assets, contraband and proceeds of crime associated with such activities will be identified and dealt with in accordance with the law,” said Anayat Ali Chowdhary, Superintendent of Police, Kulgam.
Published – 09 May 2026 09:45 IST
