Before 2022 Panjab elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) promised to eradicate drugs1 from the state in six months. Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann-led AAP came to power in Panjab in March 2022. Since then, the Panjab police has launched at least 39 reported Cordon and Search Operations (CASO) to arrest social, political and farmer activists; control drugs, apprehend gangsters, and recover weapons. Media reports say CASOs are of two types: state-wide and local. However, CASO details are not available on either government or police websites.
On 28 Feb 2025, CM Mann re-declared the ‘War on Drugs’. The govt. started bulldozing homes of alleged peddlers, raiding citizens in hundreds and arresting them, and filing First Information Reports (FIR). Below is a partial list of CASOs in the last three years.2
Sometimes CASO gets monikers such as Operation Vigil, Operation Eagle, and Operation Seal. For example, a type of operation to check traffic before elections and the current War on Drugs are named Operation Seal in its 8th and 9th episode. However, there is no information of the earlier 7 operations.
1 From 16 Mar 2022 to 31 Aug 2024, the Panjab AAP govt. filed 29,152 FIRs related to drugs and arrested 39,840. These FIRs and arrests are under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. In September 2023, the govt. decided to not penalize those found with small quantities of drugs. However, numbers of arrests remain similar to those during previous govts. Earlier Panjab govt.’s record:
Shiromani Akali Dal, 2012-17: 65,489 arrests; 49,534 FIRs between 2012-15.
Indian National Congress, 2017-2022: 68,575 arrests; 28,417 FIRs between 2019-21.
2 Gaps in data are because the media reports are incomplete and do not have full details.
