IT was not greed that drove them, but the desperation that comes with drug addiction. A couple from Akbarpur Khudal village in Mansa district recently “sold” their five-month-old boy for Rs 1.8 lakh as they had no money for their daily fix. The infant was rescued when his aunt alerted the police. The parents, in their early twenties, and the “buyer” were arrested. The frail mother was once a state-level wrestler. The Mansa shocker came as a reality check amid the daily announcements of gains of the Punjab government’s renewed anti-drug push.

Under the ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ (war on drugs), between March 1 and October 29 this year, the police registered 23,008 FIRs, arrested 34,523 people, and seized 1,503-kg heroin. Behind the numbers, the human pain remains hidden. Punjab’s war against dr

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