The increasing involvement of women in drug peddling in Jammu and Kashmir has posed a serious challenge to the police and security forces that are fighting against Pakistan backed narco-terrorism.

Women getting involved in peddling drugs from the districts bordering Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) has further complicated the situation as another International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is being observed on Monday.

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More than a dozen women belonging to Kashmir, Jammu and Punjab have been arrested by the police in the past few months while smuggling narcotics. The arrests were more in the Kashmir Valley.

Intelligence experts point out that in many cases it was found that Pakistan based terror outfits have lured some women for drug peddling as their movement generally goes unsuspected.

Terror outfits in Pakistan have been using drones to drop drugs in villages along the LoC and international border for being picked by their conduits for raising money for terrorism.

Two women were among three activists of a narco-terror module arrested by the police in north Kashmir’s border area of Sopore on Saturday. One of the arrested women, Parveen Kausar, belongs to Sidhra locality of Jammu, said the police.

In its war against drugs, the Bandipora Police recently handcuffed a woman drug dealer, Bubli Begum, who is a “habitual offender” under the NDPS Act, said the police.

Two women were among three drug peddlers arrested by the police in south Kashmir’s Kulgam on 23 June.

A woman drug trafficker recently arrested at Jammu’s Shastri Nagar locality is accused of being in touch with terror handlers sitting in Pakistan. During questioning, her links with Pakistan-based handlers were established through the mobile details.

Police recently arrested notorious drug trafficker Jano Bibi alias Bhabhi who had contacts with some drug lords taking directions from across the border. The infamous ‘Bhabhi’ was the main supplier of drugs and narcotics in different parts of Jammu province.

A woman drug peddler was nabbed in Jammu on 9 May. A couple from Punjab were arrested with 7 kg of heroin in the Udhampur district a few months ago. The police said that Lovepreet Singh and his wife Mandeep Kaur were travelling in a car when they were intercepted by police and the consignment of heroin was seized from their possession.

The accused, who hailed from Ram Tirath Road in Punjab’s Amritsar, are inter-state drug smugglers, said police. Three women drug peddlers belonging to Amritsar, Punjab were arrested in Kulgam by the Police a few months ago.

Two women, Fahmeeda and Nazira, allegedly carrying 113 gms of charas were arrested at Chellan Boniyar in north Kashmir’s Baramulla on 5 April.

Involvement of women in drug peddling is also increasing in the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in the Jammu division. Two persons, including a woman, were arrested on charges of drug peddling in separate operations in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri and Kishtwar districts, on 13 May.

The woman, a resident of Khewra village, was arrested when she was smuggling a consignment of drugs into Rajouri town, a police spokesman said. Three women drug peddlers were among 17 persons arrested in Samba district of Jammu in the month of March.