With more and more people becoming drug addicts, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) Friday said that unseen forces are behind drug trafficking in Kashmir.

Alarmed by unprecedented levels of drug addiction, President DAK Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a statement said that unseen forces are involved in peddling and promoting of drugs in Kashmir.

“They are using their touts and agents who receive financial and material assistance for trafficking drugs,” Dr Nisar said adding youth are particularly targeted and initially drugs are gifted to them till they become addicts.”

He said that the menace of drug addiction which has engulfed a vast majority of our population is a wicked conspiracy to wipe out our hope and future.

“There is a strong network of drug peddlers who make these drugs available with fruit sellers to tea shops and gyms and they enjoy the patronage of certain forces behind the curtain,” Dr Nisar said.

He said that a survey by United Nations International Drug Control Programme in 2008 showed that there were more than 70,000 drug addicts in Kashmir including 4000 women and 70% of addicts were in the age group of 18 to 35 years.(Agencies)