Ladakh Police Arrests Sonam Wangchuk After MHA Attempts to Blame Him for Violent Protest
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: Ladakh police has arrested climate activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk, according to several news reports and agencies, two days after Ministry of Home Affairs sought to blame him for protests in Leh that led to the deaths of four civilians in alleged firing by the security forces.
PTI has reported that a Ladakh police team led by DGP S.D. Singh Jamwal made the arrest.
A day ago, the Union home ministry had cancelled the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act licence of Wangchuk's organisation Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). Earlier this year, the Union government had cancelled a 40-year land lease allotted to Wangchuk’s Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL) in Leh, citing failure to execute a formal lease agreement and lack of progress on the project.
After the protests on September 24, the MHA had said that the “mob was incited” by Wangchuk's “provocative statements”.
Wangchuk and other activists had been fasting since September 10 when the protests took place in Leh city of the Union territory of Ladakh on September 24. The violence that day had led Wangchuk to call off his fast.
The Wire had reported how Wangchuk had squarely blamed the Bhartiya Janta Party-led Union government for the crisis, saying that the high powered committee (HPC) of the Union ministry of home affairs allegedly ignored the groundswell of popular sentiment and anger in Ladakh which led to mass protests.
People of Ladakh had been demanding special constitutional protections for a while now. The committee was formed by the MHA in January 2023 to discuss the four-point charter of demands, including statehood and sixth schedule status with the members of Ladakh’s civil society. But its progress has been slow and Wangchuk had said on September 24 that the people had lost patience.
Wangchuk is an internationally renowned activist and among other honours, has won the Ramon Magsaysay award, one of Asia's highest humanitarian honours.
This article went live on September twenty-sixth, two thousand twenty five, at zero minutes past four in the afternoon.
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