A few months back Gurdaspur, Pathankot militant attacks brought to the light the flourishing trans-border drug smuggling. Before the Pathankot attack, the kidnapping of a Superintendent of Police and two others looks as part of the same game plan and seems was staged manned to divert the attention to facilitate the entry of Pak-trained militants. Today the menace has spread to a dangerous proportion that almost 70 per cent of Punjab youth are under its grip. Now, with elections due in the state the parties have got fodder to go to the people. The State Congress President Capt Amrinder Singh has claimed that BSF-Rangers nexus is aiding the drug trade. His allegation is more serious than those of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Deputy CM son Sukhbir Singh Badal who had been accusing BSF of being lax on the international border with Pakistan to check drug smuggling. He also called for a national drug policy to have uniform laws across the country. “Otherwise,” he said, “there were states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where growing or trading of opium is allowed and Punjab becomes a fertile market for that.” Amarinder reiterated his resolve to finish the drug problem at the earliest in Punjab. He said he was bound by his pledge he had taken on Gutka Sahib (booklet of Sikh scriptures) in ‘Badlaav’ rally at Bathinda in December 2015, to finish the problem within four weeks if the Congress formed the government in Punjab in 2017. In the background of such a nexus the two militant attacks cannot be ruled out just an act of militancy but it reflects the growing business of Narco-terrorism on the border states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. These states proximity and porous borders, common language and life style of the people make ideal spots for the trade and security men posted on the borders become pawn of the game to facilitate smuggling for pecuniary benefits without gauging the growing security threat.
