In a determined and strategically coordinated anti-drug drive, the Mandi district police launched sweeping operations across disparate pockets of the district on Sunday, striking simultaneously at the roots of narcotics cultivation and the arteries of street-level trafficking. The synchronized raids and vehicle checks resulted in the destruction of illicit opium plantations sprawling over a combined area of 19 biswa and the seizure of commercial quantities of charas.
Providing operational details, Mandi Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar confirmed that the initial phase of the crackdown was concentrated in the geographically secluded village of Dhloot, falling under the jurisdiction of the Aut police station. Acting on specific intelligence inputs regarding flourishing illegal cultivation, police teams navigated the remote terrain to execute search and destroy missions.
In the first enforcement action, investigators uncovered a meticulously maintained illicit opium field spread across nearly 10 biswa of land. A labor-intensive counting process yielded a total of 3,220 fully grown opium plants. Following the enforcement protocols of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the entire illicit crop was photographically documented, physically uprooted, and destroyed at the site. An FIR against unidentified cultivators has been lodged, and a manhunt to trace the perpetrators is currently active.
Displaying operational persistence, the police teams subsequently zeroed in on another adjacent illegal plantation within the same village. The secondary sweep revealed an additional expansive cultivation plot covering approximately nine biswa. From this subsequent crime scene, officers painstakingly recovered and destroyed 2,751 opium plants. The sheer volume of the plantation indicated a well-organized illicit agri-network operating in the hinterland. A distinct case under the stringent provisions of the NDPS Act has been registered against unidentified persons, with the Special Task Force (STF) now aiding the local police in dismantling the backward linkages of this rural narco-trade.
While the destruction of illicit crops targeted the supply source, parallel ground-level interdiction operations focused on intercepting the movement of contraband. In a precision maneuver at Nagchala, a joint check-post team comprising personnel from the STF Centre Range Mandi at Bajaura Kullu and the Balh Police Station flagged down a Tata Ace vehicle for inspection. The search protocol led to the recovery of 264 grams of charas concealed within the vehicle. Police arrested the two occupants on the spot, identified as Ravinder Kumar and Vijay Kumar. They are now facing prosecution under Sections 20 and 29 of the NDPS Act.
In a similar yet separate action, a patrolling unit from the Pandoh Police Post intercepted a young individual acting suspiciously near the Transit Camp at Sayogi. A search of his personal baggage resulted in the confiscation of 265 grams of charas. The accused, identified as Anshu, was immediately placed under arrest, and a case under Section 20 of the NDPS Act was formally registered at the Sadar Mandi police station.
All three arrested individuals were produced before a competent jurisdictional court for remand and subsequent judicial proceedings. The district police have reiterated that the anti-drug campaign is a sustained offensive, with intensified surveillance mechanisms now firmly in place to monitor suspicious agricultural activities and highway transit routes.
