Senior J&K minister Sakina Itoo on Friday (May 8, 2026) said the campaign to demolish properties and seal houses in the garb of anti-drug initiative should stop in Kashmir. 

“In Kashmir, you are demolishing properties and sealing and attaching houses. If a youth is involved, we have to wean him away and rehabilitate him. Instead, if a youth is involved and the property is in his father’s name, it is being sealed. This is making the life of locals difficult,” said Ms. Itoo, who is a Cabinet minister and holds several portfolios, including Education and Health.

Questioning the anti-drug campaign of the J&K Police, which has carried out large scale sealing of properties and demolition of properties, Ms. Itoo said it (police) should focus on the supply chain and ensure drugs do not enter Kashmir. “It’s their job to stop the supply chain. In the garb of an anti-drug campaign, don’t target locals’ properties,” said Ms. Itoo.

The Minister also expressed concern over “more demolitions and attachment of properties in the Kashmir valley compared to Jammu”. “As a Health minister, if you ask me, the drug problem is more in Jammu than Kashmir. But action is widespread in Kashmir,” she added.

She said the Omar Abdullah government has already framed an anti-drug policy and has introduced a Bill in the J&K assembly. “We, including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, are with the efforts to curb drug abuse. But taking bulldozers to people’s doorstep is not helpful,” she added.

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party has trained guns at the J&K government over these demolitions. “For many Kashmiris, the protection of land and property was not just an election issue, it’s personal, existential. Perhaps the only reason many voted was to safeguard their livelihood and ancestral inheritance. Bulldozer justice without procedure, or due process is not governance; it is a dangerous precedent,” said PDP legislator Waheed ur Rehman Parra, who posted a video of demolition drive in south Kashmir on social media.

Mr. Parra said uprooting families from places held for generations is inhumane. “This demolition in Keegam, Shopian, proceeded despite repeated pleas to the concerned revenue authorities. Incidents like this are precisely why our land regularisation bill was necessary. The J&K government can’t ignore this problem by denying a land bill-a flood gate for demolition has been opened by denying legal protection to the poor,” said Mr. Parra.

J&K parties’ sharp criticism of the actions of the J&K Police, which comes under the command of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in the Union Territory (UT), has come just days after local legislators from ruling National Conference (NC) and PDP attended an anti-drug rally in Srinagar on the invitation of the L-G. It was the biggest anti-drugs rally attended by locals in Kashmir.

Mr. Sinha has described drug menace in Kashmir as “a silent terrorism” and accused Pakistan of using the drug money for terrorism and radicalisation.

Despite the criticism from the ruling NC, the J&K Police on Friday (May 8, 2026) stepped up a crackdown on locals, attached properties and demolished properties.  

“Police in Baramulla, in coordination with the Revenue authorities and Gulmarg Development Authority (GDA), demolished a shop of a notorious drug peddler in Ferozpora. The action forms part of the intensified campaign aimed at dismantling the support structures of drug trafficking networks and sending a strong message against the menace of narcotics,” said a police spokesman.

In south Kashmir’s Anantnag, the police said illegal cultivation of opium poppy was found on Shamilat (community) land. The police also initiated attachment and seizure proceedings under Section 68-F of the NDPS Act against Bashir Ahmad Mir and his family members in Anantnag. The police said after an enquiry conducted under Chapter VA of the NDPS Act revealed that the family had “amassed huge movable and immovable assets disproportionate to their known lawful sources of income”. “The inquiry further established that these properties were jointly held by the family members and are suspected to have been acquired through proceeds generated from illicit narcotics trade,” the police said.

In Kulgam, the police said policemen and Revenue authorities retrieved “kahcharai [a title of community land] land measuring a total of five Kanals at village Oriel under unauthorised occupation of a drug peddler”. The police said the retrieved land has an estimated market value of approximately ₹60 lakhs.

“Strict action will continue against individuals involved in drug trafficking, and all illegal assets, encroachments, and proceeds of crime linked to such activities will be identified and dealt with as per law,” said Anayat Ali Chowdhary, Senior Superintendent of Police, Kulgam.