New Delhi, Jan 10 : Investigating agencies are on their toes with the case relating to narcotics increasing in Jammu and Kashmir. Syndicates operating from Pakistan are the main suppliers of drugs into Jammu and Kashmir, officials say.

They have been exploiting some vulnerabilities along the border areas to push drugs into the Union Territory. In recent times, drugs have been smuggled into Punjab and then transported by road to J&K, investigations have found.

The year 2025 saw a major crackdown by the Jammu and Kashmir police. At least 1,000 cases were registered under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The police made around 1,400 arrests during the same year. These included major suppliers and peddlers.

However, a surprising trend was noticed in 2025. The police discovered an increasing number of women and couples involved in the trade. During the crackdown, the police arrested 35 women in Jammu alone. The police also found that many women were running an all-woman network to evade detection.

The trend of having all-women networks is something that the ISI had planned. It is encouraging the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba to have an all-women network of terrorists. Further, it is also in the process of creating an all-women network of overground workers in Jammu and Kashmir. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the ISI wants to replicate the same when it comes to the narcotics network, too, an official said.

When these syndicates realised that the crackdown by the agencies against narco-terror would be severe, they immediately changed their strategy. The creation of an all-women network and using couples to peddle drugs were part of this renewed strategy, officials say.

In both cases, the detection becomes harder. In the case of couples, they get familial cover, and the detection is slower in such cases. Even in the case of the Faridabad module, the same trend was noticed. Dr Shaheed Saeed, who has been arrested, was key to the formation of the module. She is the one who made frequent trips to Jammu and Kashmir to meet with Maulvi Irfan Ahmed. These meetings are what led to the setting up of the module. She was the one who was instrumental in taking instructions from Ahmed and radicalising the rest of the members. She got away each time because she avoided detection since she was a doctor and also a woman.

An Intelligence Bureau official said that this is a strategy that has been working for the ISI, and hence it wants to introduce many women into its terror playbook. In addition to avoiding detection, women are considered to be better recruiters.

In the Jammu and Kashmir drugs case, it was found that the women found it easy to recruit. The same applies to terror-related cases as well. The youth often tend to listen to women more as they are easily convinced. This is something that the ISI has been exploiting and would continue to do so on a larger scale in the coming days.

An official said that in addition to dealing with these all-women modules, it is also important to stop the flow of drugs into the Union Territory from Pakistan. The use of drones has gone up multifold in recent years. There have been 791 drone incursions in 2025 along the western border. A majority of these were along the Punjab and Rajasthan borders, while just nine were in Jammu and Kashmir.

The India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir has become a fortress. Post Operation Sindoor, the border has become extremely difficult to operate, and this is why the infiltrations have gone down to almost nil. Using drones along the borders with Punjab and Rajasthan allows Pakistan to bypass traditional routes. Once the narcotics land in the country, then a majority of it is transported by road into Jammu and Kashmir.

Intelligence agencies say that this menace is likely to go up this year too. The Pakistanis are desperate for funds to refuel their terror networks, and hence, the sale of narcotics will be their mainstay. The agencies are on high alert as there is actionable Intelligence which signals the increase in narcotics smuggling and the mushrooming of more all-women narco modules.

/IANS