Thiruvananthapuram: The UDF government's Operation Toofan, launched as part of its fight against drugs, is crossing national borders. The Bhutan government has contacted Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala seeking to implement the initiative in Bhutan, Chennithala said.

“Bhutan Home Minister Lungten Dorji called me and congratulated us on the initiative and sought details of the project,” Chennithala said. He shared the information in a Facebook post.

As part of Operation Toofan, 12,111 people have been arrested and 11,241 cases registered in Kerala so far. According to figures available up to Sunday, authorities have seized 24,010.692 grams of MDMA, 1,520.724 kg of cannabis, 541.547 grams of heroin and 708.819 grams of brown sugar.

Full text of Facebook post:

Bhutan, our neighbouring country, has also approached us seeking to learn from Kerala's Operation Toofan, launched in the fight against drugs.

A few days ago, Bhutan Home Minister Lungten Dorji called me and congratulated us on the initiative and sought details about the project. He said he learned about the initiative through media reports. Against the backdrop of drugs becoming a major threat, he said the Bhutan government was also interested in implementing Toofan.

I then invited him to Kerala and told him that we could hold discussions on the methods of operation and share the necessary information.

The fact that an initiative implemented by Kerala is crossing national borders and becoming a model for other countries is an achievement that we, particularly those associated with Operation Toofan, can take pride in.