Old conflict, new front lines

With militancy receding and economic opportunities growing in Kashmir, the security focus has shifted to neutralising narco-terror

- BY PRATUL SHARMA/Srinagar

Twenty-seven-year-old Manzoor (name changed) keeps glancing at his elder brother seated beside him.

For the first few minutes, the brother does most of the talking. Then Manzoor slowly begins to speak.

“I started consuming drugs after my parents died,” he says, so softly that one has to lean in to hear him. “There was no support. Friends introduced me to it. It gave immediate relief and made me forget everything.”

His father served in the Special Operations Group, Jammu and Kashmir Police’s counterinsurgency unit, and was killed years ago in a blast. What followed, Manzoor and his brother say, was not only grief but ostracisation.

“They used to raise slogans at my father’s grave, calling him traitor,” Manzoor says.

He borrowed heavily to sustain his addiction. “There was nearly ₹20 lakh in debt,” the elder brother says. “I had to sell land to repay it.” The family struggled to survive as Manzoor slipped deeper into heroin addiction.

After a month in rehabilitation, aided by medication-assisted treatment, Manzoor saw a glimpse of what he had lost. Today, he says he is “75 per cent recovered”. His weight has increased from 47kg to 53kg, as he has been eating regularly again. “Earlier, I would eat only once in three or four days,” he says.

An ardent Virat Kohli fan, he speaks cautiously about the future. But he gives a shy smile when asked whether marriage is on his mind. “First I have to become stable and earn. Then, yes, I would like to,” he says.

His friends often ask how he managed to quit. “I tell them to speak to my brother,” he says. “He takes them to rehabilitation centres.”

Manzoor is visibly recovering, but he remains fragile. He needs round-the-clock monitoring to protect him from temptations.