Fight against drugs: ‘Yudh Nashean Virudh’ second phase starts in Punjab

CHANDIGARH / PHAGWARA: Stepping up Punjab’s fight against drugs, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday launched the second phase of ‘Yudh Nashean Virudh’ at Lovely Professional University in Phagwara, expanding the state’s ongoing crackdown into a broad-based people’s movement.

Addressing a large gathering on the university campus, the AAP chief cited concrete outcomes from the first phase, including large-scale action against traffickers, high conviction rates and growing public participation, and said Phase II would consolidate these gains to decisively dismantle drug networks across Punjab.

Addressing the gathering, Arvind Kejriwal stated, “After the remarkable success of Phase One of ‘Yudh Nashean Virudh’ (war against drugs), Phase Two is beginning today. Phase One was launched on 1 March 2025, about ten months ago, and the honesty, hard work and determination with which it was implemented has never been seen before, not just in Punjab but in any state across the country, in a fight against drugs. It is not that drugs are sold only in Punjab. There are many states, including Haryana, Gujarat, Delhi and several others, where drugs are sold openly and in large quantities, but the governments there simply do not care.”

Emphasising arrests and action against major networks, the AAP supremo shared that around 42,000 smugglers have been arrested. Never before has any state caught smugglers at such a large scale. Among them are 350 big smugglers.