Editorial-15/10/2026
Drugs and bullets: on narcotrafficking and targeted killings in Punjab
Punjab’s drug crisis has entered a more dangerous phase: the state is no longer confronting only addiction and trafficking, but also the brazen use of violence against those who resist the narcotics economy. The killing of anti-drug activist Harvinder Singh Jhota in Mansa, while he confronted the alleged sale of addictive tablets at a chemist shop, is a grim reminder that the fight against drugs can no longer be treated as a routine law-and-order exercise. It demands a political, institutional and social response that reaches beyond arrests, demolitions and headline-grabbing campaigns.
A killing that exposes the system
Jhota’s murder is disturbing not merely because an activist was shot in broad daylight, but because it allegedly occurred during a confrontation over the sale of restricted pharmaceutical drugs. Reports indicate that he had been campaigning against narcotics since 2023 and had repeatedly exposed chemists and peddlers involved in the illegal trade. The alleged shooter was reportedly a local medical-store owner, and the confrontation escalated into gunfire that also injured others.
The incident illustrates the impunity that organised narcotics networks can acquire. When a citizen who questions a chemist can be killed in a marketplace, the message to other activists, witnesses and community volunteers is chilling: exposure carries a price. Punjab has seen earlier threats and attacks on those who spoke against traffickers, which suggests that the problem is not an isolated eruption of anger but part of a wider ecosystem of fear.
It is also important not to romanticise vigilantism. Citizens have a right—and often a duty—to report crime, but they should not be forced to become investigators or enforcers because the state has failed to protect them. The proper response to Jhota’s killing is not to celebrate confrontational activism, but to ask why a person repeatedly challenging the drug trade was left vulnerable, and why the machinery meant to prevent such crimes did not act earlier.
The changing face of the drug economy
Punjab’s narcotics problem has long been framed around heroin smuggled across the Pakistan border. That remains a serious threat, but the evidence now points to a more complex and adaptive market. In 2025, Punjab accounted for 2,086 kg of the 3,567 kg of heroin seized nationally—roughly 58 per cent—and recorded 298 of India’s 305 drone-related trafficking cases. These figures confirm that cross-border smuggling, including drone-based delivery, remains central to the state’s drug economy.
Yet the supply chain has changed shape rather than disappeared. The Narcotics Control Bureau has flagged a rise in pharmaceutical opioids, intravenous drug use and synthetic drugs. Police officials themselves acknowledge that medicines diverted from legitimate pharmaceutical channels and smuggled from other states have become one of the biggest enforcement challenges.
This shift matters because it makes the problem harder to police. A fenced international border may reduce some routes, but a pharmacy supply chain is dispersed, commercially embedded and difficult to monitor. Pills and injections can be diverted through licensed distributors, small retailers, online networks and informal couriers. Enforcement that focuses only on border seizures will miss the quieter, more diffuse channels through which addiction is now sustained.
The emergence of “chitta,” or synthetic chemical drugs, has intensified the damage among young people. Unlike traditional opium or poppy-husk consumption, synthetic drugs can be cheaper, more potent and more unpredictable. Their spread turns addiction from a private family tragedy into a public-health emergency, with consequences for crime, unemployment, family breakdown and social trust.
Arrests are not the same as results
The Punjab government’s “Yudh Nashian Virudh” campaign has produced large numbers of arrests and highly visible actions, including property demolitions. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has said that 70,000 drug smugglers were arrested over 500 days. These numbers may indicate administrative energy, but they do not by themselves prove that the narcotics economy has been weakened.
The distinction is crucial. Arrests measure police activity; convictions, asset forfeiture and the dismantling of financing networks measure impact. A Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice criticised Punjab Police for arresting small peddlers while influential traffickers remained untouched. Unless the state pursues financiers, hawala operators, corrupt facilitators, transporters and protectors, it will continue removing the visible foot soldiers while leaving the command structure intact.
This is not an argument against enforcement. Strong policing is indispensable. But enforcement must be intelligent, evidence-led and insulated from political pressure. It should prioritise financial investigation, digital evidence, inter-state coordination, seizure-linked prosecution and protection of witnesses. Otherwise, every arrest becomes a photo opportunity while the network regenerates behind it.
Violence as a business strategy
The second half of Punjab’s crisis—“bullets”—cannot be separated from the first. Targeted killings of activists, police personnel, local politicians and influencers have occurred with disquieting ease. These killings serve multiple purposes for criminal networks: they silence dissent, intimidate witnesses, demonstrate territorial control and signal to the public that opposition is dangerous.
Drug trafficking and gang violence feed each other. Narcotics generate cash; cash buys weapons, protection and influence; violence then secures markets and deters competitors. In such an environment, ordinary policing is insufficient. The state must treat drug syndicates as organised criminal enterprises, not merely as collections of individual offenders.
That requires better intelligence-sharing among the Punjab Police, central agencies, border forces and neighbouring states. It also requires a serious crackdown on extortion, contract killings, illegal weapons and gang networks that overlap with the narcotics trade. If the government responds only after every killing, it will remain perpetually reactive. Prevention demands identifying threats early, protecting those at risk and dismantling the networks before they strike.
The demand side cannot be ignored
Punjab’s drug crisis is not only a supply-side problem. Demand is sustained by unemployment, social alienation, easy availability, weak rehabilitation and the fact that illicit work can pay better than legitimate employment. Near the border, unemployed youths reportedly earn ₹20,000 to ₹30,000 for a single pick-up-and-delivery assignment as couriers. As long as trafficking offers such returns, arrested couriers will be replaced quickly.
This does not excuse trafficking; it explains its resilience. A young person drawn into the trade may begin as a courier and end up trapped in debt, addiction or gang violence. The state must therefore create credible alternatives: skill development linked to actual jobs, local employment, sports and cultural engagement, mental-health support and community-based prevention.
Rehabilitation also needs to move beyond slogans. De-addiction centres must be adequately staffed, medically supervised and connected to long-term recovery, vocational training and family counselling. Treating addiction purely as a moral failure or criminal offence drives users underground, delays treatment and strengthens stigma. A public-health approach does not weaken enforcement; it makes enforcement more effective by reducing the market that traffickers exploit.
Political promises and public trust
Every major party in Punjab has promised to end the drug menace, and every government has faced accusations of failure or complicity. The Aam Aadmi Party government has repeatedly set deadlines for making Punjab drug-free, while opposition parties accuse it of administrative and political patronage. The Congress, Akali-BJP era and other political formations have faced similar allegations in the past. This cycle of promises, blame and short-term campaigns has eroded public trust.
The danger is that drugs become primarily an electoral issue rather than a governance issue. With assembly elections due in early 2027, every overdose, seizure and killing is likely to be converted into campaign material. Political competition can be useful if it produces accountability, but it becomes corrosive when it reduces a complex crisis to rival claims of moral superiority.
What Punjab needs is continuity: an independent monitoring mechanism, transparent data on seizures, arrests, convictions and rehabilitation outcomes, and periodic public reporting. The public should be able to judge progress not by slogans but by whether high-level traffickers are convicted, whether drug availability falls, whether treatment capacity expands and whether activists and witnesses are safe.
A comprehensive agenda
Punjab requires a strategy built on at least six pillars.
- Target the network, not only the peddler. Financial investigations, hawala trails, property attachment and prosecution of organisers must become central to anti-narcotics work.
- Protect citizens who report crime. Witness protection, rapid response to threats, secure complaint channels and accountability for police failures are essential.
- Regulate pharmaceutical diversion. Tracking prescriptions, auditing chemists, monitoring suspicious bulk sales and coordinating with other states are necessary because diverted medicines now form a major supply channel.
- Secure the border intelligently. Anti-drone systems, surveillance, border policing and inter-agency coordination must continue, but border action alone cannot solve a market that has moved into pharmacies and synthetic drugs.
- Expand treatment and prevention. De-addiction services, harm reduction, counselling, employment pathways and school- and college-based prevention must receive sustained funding.
- Restore institutional credibility. Independent oversight, transparent prosecution data and protection of investigations from political interference are necessary to convince citizens that the state is serious.
The larger lesson
Jhota’s killing should not become another brief moment of outrage followed by political recrimination. It should force Punjab to confront an uncomfortable truth: a narcotics economy survives not only because drugs are available, but because fear, money and institutional weakness protect it. When activists are killed, when small peddlers are arrested while bigger operators remain untouched, and when young people find trafficking more lucrative than lawful work, the state is losing on multiple fronts.
The answer lies neither in theatrical crackdowns nor in fatalism. Punjab needs patient institution-building: better policing, financial disruption, inter-state cooperation, public-health investment and political honesty. Until then, the state will continue to swing between crackdown headlines and overdose headlines, while its citizens bear the cost in lost lives, broken families and diminished confidence in the rule of law.
