Exposing the Taliban’s Heroin Route: India’s Urgent War for Its Youth

From Afghan poppy fields to Punjab’s skies, a deadly drug network operates. It uses drones, covert routes, and cross-border crime. This network wages a quiet but devastating battle on India’s next generation.

The Funeral the World Ignored

In a quiet village near Ferozepur, the monsoon rain falls without ceremony. The small crowd stands in silence as a young man’s body is lowered into the ground. There are no speeches. No slogans. Just the sound of a mother’s cries, breaking against the muffled thud of wet soil hitting the coffin.

The boy was 24. His name is not in police records. It is not because his death was hidden. It is because his family didn’t want the shame. His crime? None. His killer? A small sachet of heroin. It had traveled hundreds of miles from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the streets of Punjab. The sachet was delivered by a Pakistani drone under the cover of night.

This is how the Taliban’s heroin pipeline fights its war. Not with guns or bombs, but with powder that poisons silently, generation after generation.

The Source: Fields of Death in Afghanistan

In April 2022, the Taliban publicly announced a ban on opium cultivation. The world’s media covered it with cautious optimism. But the reality on the ground in 2025 tells a different story.

In Helmand and Kandahar provinces, farmers still plant poppy. They do this not openly, but under the protective shadow of warlords and Taliban-linked commanders. Afghan opium remains the Taliban’s financial backbone. The profits are staggering: farmers can earn ten times more from poppy than wheat. A UN study estimated Afghanistan’s farmers earned US$1.4 billion from opium in 2022, a surge from US$425 million the year before.

Afghanistan’s heroin production doesn’t just fund Taliban governance. It fuels militant networks and arms purchases. It also supports a transnational smuggling apparatus that stretches deep into India.

The Golden Crescent’s Artery to India

Afghanistan sits at the heart of the Golden Crescent, a region synonymous with narcotics. Once processed into heroin, much of this poison is smuggled through Pakistan before making its way to India. The routes are varied and adaptive:

• Land convoys — hidden among truckloads of agricultural produce or construction material.
• Sea channels — fishing boats and small cargo ships docking along Gujarat and Kerala coasts.
• Drones — the fastest-growing method, bypassing human checkpoints entirely.

Punjab’s flat farmlands, crisscrossed by rivers and canals, have become perfect drop zones for aerial deliveries. The heroin doesn’t knock on your door it falls into your backyard.

Punjab: The War’s Frontline

Punjab is bearing the brunt of this invisible invasion. Government estimates suggest 230,000 people in the state are dependent on opioids. Heroin accounts for over half of all cases.
Most are young men aged between 18 and 35 men who should be working the fields, studying, starting families. Instead, they are hooked to a powder that is easy to hide but almost impossible to escape.

Entire villages whisper about which family has “a problem.” Girls delay marriages because prospective grooms are suspected addicts. Schools quietly remove the names of dropouts. The police fight their battle in statistics; families fight theirs in shame.

Drones: The Skyborne Smugglers

Smuggling by drone is not just a trickle it’s an industrial operation.

• 2024: BSF seized 200 drones along Punjab’s border double the previous year.
• Jan–June 2025: Over 130 drones captured, carrying 135 kg of heroin and dozens of weapons.
• August 13, 2025: Two incidents in one day Ferozepur saw 1.649 kg of heroin and two pistols recovered; Tarn Taran intercepted 600 grams of heroin mid-drop.

Smugglers are upgrading using high-altitude drones that fly deeper into India, far beyond early detection systems. Some drones now have GPS auto-drop functions. This allows them to release packages on precise coordinates even if the operator is miles away.

The Fightback: Punjab’s ‘Baaj Akh’

Punjab is the first Indian state to deploy anti-drone systems along its 553 km international border. The ₹51.4 crore ‘Baaj Akh’ project, coordinated with BSF, the Air Force, and the Army, aims to blind these mechanical smugglers.

Police have also launched the ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ campaign:

• Over 1,000 kg heroin seized since March 2025.
• More than 15,000 FIRs filed and 25,000 arrests made.
• Hawala operators arrested, properties worth ₹33 crore seized, ₹8 crore in drug money frozen.

But for every package seized, many still slip through.

The Human Cost: Stories That Don’t Make Headlines

In Sriganganagar, Rajasthan, more than 100 young men have died from overdoses since January 2024. In Murshidabad, West Bengal, BSF caught a man with 3.387 kg heroin at the Bangladesh border proof the network is nationwide.

Yet most stories go unreported. In one Ludhiana household, a 19-year-old lies on a bed in a de-addiction center, shivering under withdrawal. His mother sits beside him, clutching a tattered photo of him from when he was 12 smiling, hair neatly parted. She whispers, “He wasn’t born an addict. Someone brought this into our home.”

A War That Demands Allies

The heroin war can’t be fought by Punjab alone. It demands:

• Technology — anti-drone grids, AI-based border surveillance, GPS tracking of offenders.
• Legal muscle — fast-track NDPS courts with high conviction rates.
• Rehabilitation — regulated, well-funded de-addiction centers that treat addiction as a disease, not a crime.
• Community action — public awareness, school programs, and open conversations that break the shame barrier.

Conclusion: Winning Back the Future

The Taliban’s heroin trade is not just an Afghan problem. It is not solely a Punjab problem. It’s a national threat with the potential to cripple a generation. It doesn’t just kill with overdoses; it erodes trust, family stability, and community bonds.

If India’s silent war is to be won, it will not be through seizures alone. It will need relentless pressure on supply chains and rehabilitation for victims. There must be a collective refusal to let an imported poison define our future.

Because in the end, this is not a war for territory it’s a war for people.

Sources

1. UNODC World Drug Report (2023–2025) – Opium cultivation & Taliban ban data
2. BSF annual seizure reports (2024–2025) – Drone statistics & heroin recovery
3. Punjab Government press releases – ‘Baaj Akh’ & ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ campaigns
4. Times of India, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Economic Times – Field reporting & incident coverage
5. Golden Crescent overview – Wikipedia
6. Field interviews & local NGO data – Punjab & Rajasthan addiction cases
7. Ministry of Home Affairs – Border surveillance upgrades & anti-drone policy