Narcotics and Narcoterrorism Add to India’s National Security Woes in Western Himalayas

A new narcotics-sustained terrorism model has started to take root in Jammu and Kashmir, experts say.

Indian security personnel stand guard near the clock tower at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Aug. 15, 2024, on the country's Independence Day. While Kashmir was already a hotbed of narcotics, in recent years, the adjoining region of Jammu has witnessed an exponential rise in narcoterrorism. Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images

After Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was reelected in June, his coalition government faced an immediate rise in terrorism incidents in some otherwise sleepy areas of Jammu in the western Himalayas.

While the spike in attacks is new, the region was already battling other regional security concerns, particularly increasing narcotics and cross-border narcoterrorism.