Warning that an international drug lobby is attempting to tighten its grip on Kerala and lure children into drug addiction, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the government aimed to mobilise the entire population against the menace through Operation Toofan.

He was inaugurating the district-level launch of the anti-drug campaign, ‘Operation Toofan: The Narco Hunt,’ the anti-drug enforcement drive of the Kerala Police, at Kunnamangalam in Kozhikode on Saturday (June 20). Mr. Chennithala said the fight against the drug mafia could succeed only if children, parents, and the public joined the effort.

The Minister said Operation Toofan had launched a major campaign against alcohol and narcotic drugs. “The spread of drug abuse has reached such a level that parents are afraid even to send their children to school. If a new Kerala is to be built, a new generation free from substance abuse must be nurtured,” he said.

Mr. Chennithala said only Kerala’s youth had the strength to dismantle the active drug lobby and urged them to become part of Operation Toofan to eradicate its roots.

He handed over the anti-drug torch to M.A. Razak Master, MLA. The Minister also distributed awards to students who excelled in SSLC, Higher Secondary, LSS, USS and NMMS examinations, and inaugurated the One Million Goal Campaign against drugs and the Edu Carnival in the Kunnamangalam Assembly constituency.

Mr. Razak presided. M.K. Raghavan, MP, and K. Praveen Kumar, MLA, attended.