Thiruvananthapuram: Three months into the V.D. Satheesan government, state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala’s signature campaign is emerging as one of its biggest public-impact initiatives.

When Chennithala returned to the Home portfolio after a gap of a decade, he did not take long to identify what he believed was the most urgent battle facing Kerala, the state’s rapidly spreading drug menace.

Three months into the Satheesan government, Operation Toofan, conceived and driven by Chennithala, is beginning to provide him with numbers that underline the scale of the campaign.

As of date since the campaign began, 9,085 cases have been registered and 9,795 arrests made so far; the operation has emerged as one of the government’s most visible interventions against the drug network operating across the state.

The latest statewide crackdown on Saturday added 38 more cases and 38 arrests.

The seizures so far include 7,460.567 grams of MDMA, 961.450 kg of ganja and 4,720.909 grams of hashish oil.

But Toofan was conceived as more than a police operation. For several years, Kerala has watched with growing alarm as drug abuse moved from being a problem discussed in police stations to one being confronted inside homes.

News reports of school and college students falling prey to narcotics, youngsters becoming users and, in some cases, turning into carriers for quick money, have made the issue a deeply personal one for thousands of families.

It was against this backdrop that Chennithala chose the drug menace as one of his priorities after taking charge.

Now at 70 years of age, and with the experience of having entered the State Cabinet when he was 28 under the late K. Karunakaran, Chennithala has sought to combine political experience with a campaign designed to take the fight beyond the police force.

He travelled across the state, interacted with people from different walks of life and sought to create a community-based resistance by enrolling them as ‘Toofan Warriors’.

The idea was simple: the fight against drugs cannot be left to the police alone.

The latest figures suggest that the campaign has developed a substantial preventive and awareness component alongside enforcement.

On a single day, Kerala Police conducted 65 awareness classes across the state, taking the cumulative number to 8,994.

As many as 564 counselling sessions have also been conducted, while school and college Protection Groups have organised 6,482 awareness programmes.

The latest round of cases included 10 for possession of small quantities and one involving a medium quantity, besides 27 cases under the NDPS Act and 16 under COTPA.

Police also seized 3.343 kg of ganja from those booked.

For Chennithala, Toofan is consequently becoming more than a government programme.

It is turning into a political statement that the battle against drugs must be fought simultaneously on the streets, in educational institutions and inside homes.

Three months may be too early for victory claims. But if the numbers are any indication, the Home Minister’s first major battle under the Satheesan government has certainly begun to gather momentum.

Kolkata, Aug 16: The police on Sunday arrested three persons, including one Trinamool Congress village panchayat chief, in connection with the murder of a Congress leader, Anisur Rahman, and his 24-year-old son Abu Sufian at Bethuadahari under Nakashipara Police Station in West Bengal’s Nadia district.

The incident had happened late Saturday night. Fatema Bibi, the head of Haranagar village panchayat in Nadia district, was one of the three persons arrested here. Her husband, Jubbar Sheikh, an influential Trinamool leader in the area, has been in judicial custody, and the local Congress leadership accused him of being the mastermind behind the murders of Anisur Rahman and Abu Sufian.

In addition, two of Fatema’s associates, namely Ali Mandal and Mithun Sheikh, have also been arrested. They have already been produced in the court after a medical examination in the morning. The police have sought custody for three of them.

It is learnt that Anisur Rahman and Abu Sufian were returning home in a four-wheeler on Saturday night. At that time, the miscreants blocked their road and allegedly fired several rounds of bullets. The car was forcibly stopped, and the father and son were beaten with sharp weapons. According to sources, both died on the spot due to excessive bleeding.

After receiving information about this incident, the police from the Nakashipara police station reached the spot.

The Congress leadership in the Nadia district has claimed that the country’s oldest national party was fast occupying the principal opposition space in the district after the landslide defeat of the previous ruling party, Trinamool Congress, in the recently concluded Assembly polls.

“Anisur Rahman and his son were playing the key role in regaining our party’s space as the principal opposition force in the state. That is exactly why the father and the son became an eyesore for the local Trinamool Congress leadership, especially Fatema Bibi and his currently jailed husband, who had always been involved with all sorts of notorious and anti-social activities in the district. But no one expected that the sequence of events would take such a nasty turn. It was not just a simple murder. The assassin rather wanted to leave a message through the ghastly manner in which the father and his son were killed,” said a local Congress leader.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee was observing a ‘black day’ throughout the state as a mark of protest against the assassination. Both the current and former state Congress presidents, Suvankar Sarkar and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, have demanded a speedy probe in the matter and the strictest punishment for those involved in the murder.

New Delhi, Aug 16: A sanitation worker employed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was stabbed to death while on duty in Delhi’s Kalyanpuri area on Sunday morning.

CCTV footage reportedly shows the accused attacking the sanitation worker with a knife. A Delhi Police team is currently examining the footage and other evidence to trace the assailant.

The deceased has been identified as 24-year-old Anil Kumar, an MCD sanitation worker. According to preliminary information, Anil was performing his duties in Kalyanpuri around 7 a.m. on Sunday when he was attacked with a knife, officials said.

The accused fled the scene after the incident.

Upon receiving the information, the police arrived at the scene and initiated an investigation. Officials said that multiple teams have been formed to apprehend the accused using the CCTV footage.

Following the incident, BJP Trilokpuri MLA Ravi Kant visited the site and condoled the death of the worker.

Speaking to media , he described it as a “deeply tragic” event. “While the rest of Delhi sleeps, it is these workers who perform the task of waking the city up. We stand in solidarity with the victim’s family,” he said.

The BJP MLA stated that the perpetrator has been identified and that strict action will be taken against him.

Kant further said, “I have seen the CCTV footage. Anil was doing his job when the accused suddenly approached and attacked him.”

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Kondli MLA Kuldeep Kumar spoke to media, stating, “A sanitation worker was brazenly murdered in Kalyanpuri. Has Kalyanpuri become the crime capital? Murders are taking place all over Delhi.”

“Think about the plight of the family of a sanitation worker who performs his job. When he collects garbage, it is not because he enjoys the work; due to financial circumstances and the inability to find other employment, he is compelled to collect garbage. He has been murdered,” Kumar said.

He further demanded a police encounter of the accused to “set a precedent and ensure no one else commits such a crime”.

The AAP MLA also demanded that the victim’s family be provided with compensation and that a family member be given a job.