NEW DELHI: Home minister Amit Shah will on Monday meet the families of those who recently lost their lives —in Mansa, Sangrur and Gurdaspur districts of Punjab — for speaking against and ‘chitta’ (synthetic drug) traders in the state.In a post on X on Sunday, Shah stated: “The Punjab government has left no stone unturned in pushing the state into an abyss of drug abuse, a situation that has caused many families to lose their children”.He said the grief that the affected families are enduring is beyond words.
“Attempts to silence those who raise their voices against this dark drug trade will never succeed, and the people of the state will provide a befitting response,” Shah said, adding that “the Government of India will track down those involved in the ‘chitta’ trade and put them behind bars, ensuring that Punjab—and the entire country—is completely rid of this drug menace”.Just a couple of days back, the home ministry had sought detailed reports from the Punjab chief secretary on three incidents of drug-related deaths involving either the family members of addicts or anti-drug crusaders who spoke up against ‘chitta’ trade. These incidents include the Sept 7 suicide by Gulzar Singh, father of a young man addicted to drugs who had named an AAP minister in a video statement before taking his own life; and the murders of anti-drugs activists Parvinder Singh Jhota in Mansa disrict on Oct 13 and Bikramjit Singh in Batala, Gurdaspur, on Thursday.