Kashmir’s heroin epidemic | DW Documentary

Kashmir’s heroin epidemic | DW Documentary

violence unrest and strife Indian
administered Kashmir has a volatile
history but a new poison has taken over
the region and it’s consuming entire
families heroin would keep me away from
the protests heroin helped me to run
away from them 33,000 syringes are being
used
daily by Kashmir you
drug addiction has reached epidemic
proportions here and it’s mostly young
people in its
[Music]
hold every morning Rohana jabin an
Outreach campaigner with a government
supported agency in the capital shraga
distributes pamphlets in public spaces
to raise awareness of drug
abuse whatever drug users earn they
spend on drugs entire families are
ruined because their money is wasted on
drugs children are suffering addicts are
unable to pay school fees women are
suffering they’re having health issues
when you speak to women living with drug
addicts they are victims of domestic
violence we see bruises on their faces
hands and even burn
marks it’s a challenging
job I have faced dangerous drug addicts
once or
twice once an addict even ran after me
when we entered a
locality some other people intervened
and saved
me her colleague ashik tarou says one
particular drug is doing all the
damage it’s heroin and even kids are
injecting it it used to be people above
25 years old but you now see children as
young as 15 with a drug
problem recently we met a young boy aged
15 who was hepatitis C positive
C hepatitis C is a common indicator of
intravenous drug abuse caused by users
sharing infected
needles AIC has shown with the hot spots
on this map where incidence rates of
hepatitis C are as high as 17 cases for
every hundred
people these are the places where he
gets most calls from distraught parents
call him for help for their children who
have taken to
[Music]
drugs one of these parents is rashed
Khan his son ikbal Khan is among the
many patients admitted to this addiction
treatment center the biggest in the
region to protect their identities we
have changed their names and cannot show
their
faces rasheed’s son ikbal has been
getting treatment here for the last few
weeks after his father brought him in
fearing for his
life
and his face had
marks he kept drinking only tea even
during the
night he would always have a full cattle
of tea and would not sleep at
night we went into his room to check on
him only to find him in a state of
unconsciousness unresponsive
I had hoped to provide him with an
education confident that he would
Excel we are a poor family I held on to
the belief that he would eventually
support
us he used to sing and my dream was to
see him succeed through music to secure
our future
ib’s childhood and teenage years were
directly impacted by the decades old
Kashmir conflict in 2016 21-year-old
bhan wani a commander of hisb mujahedin
which is an islamist militant
organization and Insurgent group was
killed by the Indian forces he was
considered a hero and a martyr by the
Region’s youth soon violent
demonstrations mainly attended by by
young men and boys erupted ikbal took
part in these protests he was part of
the mobs who pelted security personnel
with
stones 2016 in 2016 we were studying in
school in the aftermath of the burhan
wani crisis it was a military crisis an
army crisis we were asking for aadi or
Freedom we just wanted to be
free but the violence spiraled out of
control
[Music]
my best friend and I were throwing
stones
together I still have pet gun marks
they’re all over my
back the second pellet gunshot hit my
friend because he got too close to the
forces the pets entered deep into his
body and he died on the
spot I was in shock I couldn’t believe
what had happened
heroin he told me helped him to escape
from the
trauma my friend wasn’t the only one
there were two or three more people I
knew who died in those
protests so my friends who were left
behind started taking drugs in 2017 we
didn’t know who introduced heroin where
did it come
from how old were you when you first
used
heroin 13 or 14 years old I thought it
was okay to take it better than the
chaos of this conflict heroin would keep
me away from the protests heroin helped
me to run away from the crisis that was
unfolding
here he shows us the marks on his arms
that tell the story of his difficult
rehab
Journey withdrawal was bad I thought I
would lose my mind I felt physical pain
during the
withdrawal bal’s father blames the
Indian authorities for his son’s
condition as the government struggled to
regain control after protests they
resorted to deploying agents who
introduced drugs into the
community the strategy aimed to keep the
youth preoccupied with substance abuse
them their tactic proved effective in
stopping the unrest as the mental
instability due to the drug made them
numb and disengaged from the
turmoil Stone throwing and militancy is
at an all-time historic low in the
otherwise restive
region but in absence of any hard
evidence it remains no more than a
theory that the introduction of opioids
took the stone pelters away from the
streets and to the rehab centers
violent incidents are common in rehab
and Dr Sajid Muhammad wani is struggling
to cope with the increasing number of
intakes at the shmc rehab center in
shrinagar the government estimates
around 1.5 million people in jamu and
Kashmir are using drugs especially
opioids every day we are seeing about
every day near about 250 patients 250 50
patients most most of them abuse opid
patients are opioid Ed disorder patients
this was not always the case now they
take hard drugs like heroin herin heroin
and cost of that drug if we see one G
cost one gr costs about
€56 either they inject it or chase the
dragon which means inhaling it or IV
root IV root they’re using and that’s
why they’re using the the syringes and
perhaps sharing it sharing of needles
and that can lead them to either
hepatitis HIV so hepatitis we
what are the challenges as a doctor as
someone who’s looking after so many
patients and increasingly looking for
more and more patients what what do you
need here psychist we need more
psychologists they could provide more
counseling sessions provide more seeing
200 patients every day is a lot we have
a limited number of psychologists for
such types of patients psychist and they
need better care type of
patients mental health is a big
challenge in one of the most militarized
zones in the world navigating a life
under constant surveillance can be
humiliating for many and lead to stress
we spoke to the police to inquire if
they bear some of the
responsibility approximately 33,000
syringes are being used
daily by kmir youth
33,000 syringes daily
that’s a big number big number how is it
connected to Narco terrorism what does
that mean Narco terrorism means a
terrorism supported by Narco Channel
Narco link Jammu and Kashmir is getting
its Consignment from cross border
through Porters they are crossing the L
SE on foot they are crossing the L SE
through drones I have been to all these
de addiction Ward now when I speak to
them the parents of the victims young
boys really young boys uh starting 12 13
you know going to 25 but at the same
time they also say that if the police
wants uh to control this drug Menace
they can do that and they’re claiming
that they the police has turned a blind
eye to it to this I accept that there
is there is some uh scope of corruption
there is definitely if trade is there
and we are there how it
is reaching to the Distributors how it
is reaching to the receivers and spers
and all definitely it is it has some
connotations like that can you avoid the
fact that huge border is there and some
other agencies are deployed on the
border and when we talk about and it is
not not not I me the officer of Jammu
and Kashmir police
you talk to other
agencies they will give you the data the
maximum chunk of the drug is coming
through
borders who sitting at the border I’m
not going to under this so you we will
we have to
analyze why and how they are able to
cross the border and reach to hinder
lands that was a rare acknowledgement by
the police that corrupt Indian border
security officials may be involved in
the drug business
for a Sheik who saying tafaro it’s
another day and yet another case where
he reaches out to distraught parents
seeking help for their son’s heroin
addiction but what’s next for
[Music]
ikbal before the addiction my life was
good I was singing and learning
Taekwondo I want to get back to that
life I was flourishing and I just want
to get back to who I was
that is what I want
[Music]
[Music]

Iqbal Khan is a young man living in Kashmir with a heroin addiction. For the past weeks he has been in a rehab center for treatment. Iqbal Khan’s father holds the government responsible for a drug epidemic in Kashmir. The authorities are turning a blind eye to the drug related problems. In the past five years, the number of heroin addicts in the Kashmir region administered by India, has increased by over 2000 percent. The region is characterized by violence, conflict, and unrest, more and more young people fall victim to drugs. Indian-Pakistani cartels are allegedly behind this problem. A Report by Akanksha Saxena, Irfan Mehraj & Khalid Khan.

00:00 – Intro
02:35 – A young man in rehab
04:03 – Youth in the Kashmir conflict
06:39 – Accusations against the Indian government
07:25 – Rehab centers at their limits
09:15 – Indian-Pakistani networks

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