Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], March 12 : The Punjab police continued its war against drugs under the "Yudh Nashian Virudh", which was started by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann to eradicate the drug menace from the state consecutively for the 12th day.
Punjab Police on Wednesday conducted raids at 543 locations, leading to the arrest of 118 drug smugglers after registration of 71 first information reports (FIRs) across the state. With this, the number of total drug smugglers arrested has reached to 1658 in just 12 days.

Police teams have also recovered 994 grams of heroin, 4633 intoxicant tablets/pills/injections and Rs 1.47 lakh drug money from the possession of arrested drug smugglers.
The operation was conducted on the directions of Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav simultaneously in all 28 Police districts of the state.
Notably, CM Bhagwant Singh Mann has asked the Commissioners of Police, Deputy Commissioners and Senior Superintendent of Police to make Punjab a drug free state in the coming three months. The Punjab government has also constituted a 5-member Cabinet Sub-Committee led by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema to monitor the war against drugs.

Divulging details, Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla informed that over 250 Police teams, comprising over 1600 police personnel, under the supervision of 102 gazetted officers, have conducted raids across the state and checked as many as 659 suspicious persons during the day-long operation
He said that Punjab Police has devised a comprehensive strategy, and such operations will be continued till the scourge of drugs is eradicated from the state.
The Special DGP said that with the state government has enforced a three-pronged strategy-- Enforcement, Deaddiction and Prevention (EDP)-- to eradicate drugs from the state, the Punjab Police as part of 'De-addiction' has convinced 19 persons to undergo de-addiction and rehabilitation treatment, while, organised 154 awareness events across the state as part of Prevention.
Meanwhile, Police teams have also conducted checking at as many as 281 pharmaceutical shops in five districts including Fatehgarh Sahib, Commissionerate Police Ludhiana, Ludhiana Rural, Khanna and Malerkotla to ensure that they are not selling intoxicant tablets or any other habit-forming drugs, and are adhering to the prescribed norms and regulations regarding the sale of medicines.