Ali shuffles across the quiet yard of a drug de-addiction centre in Srinagar, the capital of India-administered Kashmir. The 26-year-old sought help after a decade of using drugs ranging from brown sugar to codeine. Ali recalled being high when he was training with militants for jihad. “It used to make me feel strong and motivated,” he said. “I felt I could do anything.”
For two decades, the people of Kashmir have endured the fighting between the Indian army and the militants. The impact of the long-drawn conflict is now surfacing in the form of deteriorating mental health in the Valley along with a drastic rise in drug abuse. The state government of Jammu and Kashmir, however, is ill-equipped to arrest the problem…read it at SmartPlanet.