SAD to hold dharnas at international border on drug menace

With BJP President Amit Shah set to begin a campaign against drugs from Amritsar on January 12 next year, its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today announced that it will organise protests on the international border on January 5 against the drug menace.
Punjab's Deputy Chief Minister and SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal today said the party will urge the Border Security Force (BSF) to take more steps to stop drugs from entering Punjab territory from Pakistan side.
Badal said the four dharnas would be held at Attari international border, Sadki Check Post at Fazilka, Hussainiwala international border and the Gurdaspur international border.

"Punjab and the nation are suffering from the ill effects of narco-terrorism due to continuous smuggling of narcotics from Pakistan into Punjab through the international border.
"The border is guarded by the BSF which is a central agency over which we do not have any control. This smuggling must stop and the border with Pakistan must be completely sealed. Then only can we fight a national war against drugs", the SAD president said in a statement here.
Badal announced that all dharnas would be held in a peaceful manner.

He further said "the Punjabis felt it was necessary to congregate at the border as they were being branded as drug addicts despite waging the nation's fight against drugs menace" and added, the steps aimed at checking the menace.

Badal claimed that the drug issue was in the limelight today because the Punjab government decided to wage a war against it.
"It is because of us that the fight against drugs is entering a decisive phase in India", he added.
Badal said Punjab did not manufacture a single gramme of drugs "which were coming into the state from Pakistan or other states in India, including Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Now we want a cap on both these sources of drug production".