Pakistan is attempting to flood Punjab with drugs as a “long-term strategy” to destroy India’s youth, particularly those living in border states, said Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday.

“The Punjab drug problem is reaching a critical point... (But) We are going hammer and tongs at solving the problem,” he saidThe chief minister pointed to recent seizures of hundreds of kilograms of heroin at Gujarat’s Mandvi port and Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri. In both these cases, Capt Singh said, the destination was Punjab.

The state government’s crackdown has pushed up the street price of heroin by over four times but this does not mean that drugs were not being pushed into the market, he said.

The chief minister said the state and central agencies had identified some big operators and were going after them.

In the long run, the chief minister said he was convinced that Pakistan’s game plan was to “demolish” the youth in the country’s northern belt which sends nearly two-thirds of all soldiers in the army.