Leh: When 72-year-old Tsering Angchuk and 60-year-old Tashi Dolma collapsed during their hunger strike and had to be rushed to a hospital Tuesday night, it jolted Ladakh out of its slumber. Until then, many young Ladakhis had stayed on the sidelines of the protest to demand statehood and Sixth Schedule protections for the Union Territory. Anger over Angchuk and Dolma’s condition, amplified by searing speeches and emotional appeals, drew nearly 5,000 to Wednesday’s procession at Nawang Dorjay Stobdan (NDS) ground.
But the show of solidarity soon spiralled into fury. Armed with kerosene bottles, rods and sticks, a group tore through the otherwise silent streets of Leh, associating the peaceful protest with a violent rupture, one which even security forces hadn’t anticipated.
What triggered Wednesday’s violence and whether it was orchestrated are questions that linger, even as both the Ladakh administration and protesters continue to defend their actions. At least four, including an ex-serviceman, died in the police firing, and 70 others including at least 30 police and paramilitary personnel were injuries in the violence.
Was it then, an intelligence failure? A senior official posted in Ladakh told ThePrint on condition of anonymity, “We had some intel that outsiders were present, but protests have always been peaceful. The forces didn’t expect stones and attacks without provocation.”
Speaking to ThePrint, Leh Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Stanzin Norboo said a call was made for a large-scale protest on 23 September. “Leh Apex Body youth co-ordinator Stanzin Chophel, vice president Rigzin Dorjay gave emotional speeches appealing to the public to join the protest in large numbers,” he said.
Adding, “Mobilisation started at a grand scale and spread through social media and word of mouth. The leaders told the youth, ‘look at the elderly making sacrifices for Ladakh’.”
The hunger strike at NDS ground, SSP Norboo explained, saw meagre crowds of 140-400 on a daily basis until Wednesday. Referring to speeches by Wanghuck and Congress councillors Phuntsog Stanzin Tsepag and Smanla Dorje Nurboo, he said the police have “video footage of some of them even saying they don’t believe in hunger strikes”.
Wangchuk was arrested Friday on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) filed under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in connection with six incidents of rioting and arson. He has been named as an accused. Besides him, at least 40 individuals, including ex-servicemen, have been apprehended in connection with the violence.
Senior police officers said investigators are on the lookout for two persons who don’t have direct links with any political parties and may have been working with civil society groups ‘linked’ to the violence.
Leh Apex Body, which has been spearheading the protests, is a coalition of various religious, social, and political groups, including the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA). Wangchuk is also a member of the Leh Apex Body, which has called for a complete shutdown in light of the violence, while demanding a judicial enquiry.
With a curfew in force Friday, an eerie silence hung over Leh. Closed shutters lined the deserted streets. Taxi drivers, too, were afraid to venture out. Meanwhile, families of those detained in connection with the violence gathered outside the police colony—where the top brass met and took stock of the situation—to plead innocence.
Internet services have been suspended in parts of Leh to prevent any mobilisation.
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The mobilisation: hunger strike to havoc
Protesters said unrest had been simmering in Leh for the last 10 days; Angchuk and Dolma’s hospitalisation became the spark. The UT administration used it as an excuse to crack down even on peaceful protesters who had stayed clear of the violence, they alleged.
Speaking to ThePrint from his hospital bed, 23-year-old Jigmet said, “Ladakhis don’t need social media to agitate over their demands for statehood and protection under the Sixth Schedule. We were happy when we were given UT status but they made a fool out of us.”
“They want outsiders to come here more and more and destroy everything here, the climate as well as take away the livelihoods of the people here. There is massive unemployment here,” he added.
Jigmet said he joined the protest Wednesday, before which he had never attended the many hunger strikes launched by Wangchuk, including the latest that began on 10 September. “The government wanted to carry on with the Ladakh Festival as if everything were normal,” he said. But on Thursday, festival stalls stood deserted, decorations strewn across the ground, as a testimony of the violence that Leh had just witnessed.
Another protester who did not wish to be named said, “The youth had been discussing how the government has been unfair, anger over unemployment too spiralled. This agitation didn’t start in one day, it didn’t start on one Whatsapp group. It wasn’t very strategically coordinated, even though the government will say so. It was just collective anger, like it happens whenever people come to the streets in unity to fight against injustice.”
The PLFS 2022-23 report put Ladakh’s unemployment rate at 6.1 percent, higher than the national average of 3.2 percent. Ladakh registered the sharpest increase in the number of unemployed graduates in India between 2021-22 and 2022-23, an over 16 percent increase in a year, the government said in response to a question in Parliament in 2023.
Recalling the incidents of Wednesday, eyewitnesses ThePrint spoke to said violence first erupted at Cheetah Chowk, about 300 metres from NDS ground where Wangchuck and others were sitting on a hunger strike. A mob then vandalised the local BJP office, resorted to arson and set police vehicles on fire. “The chaos began at Cheetah chowk,” confirmed one protester under treatment in the hospital for injuries suffered in the violence.
The CRPF “fired” when some of the protesters pelted stones, he added.
A CRPF personnel who witnessed the violence told ThePrint, “One part of the crowd flung some bottles at the Secretariat of the Leh Hill Development Council and pelted stones. Then some of them near the BJP office vandalised it. We couldn’t comprehend how this started because all of it started without any provocation. We didn’t anticipate this.”
Stanzin Namgal, a 24-year-old local driver nursing a bullet wound to his leg, said “police fired tear gas and then started shooting”.
“I wasn’t regularly part of the hunger strike, but I joined Wednesday’s procession. We demand Sixth Schedule protection so outsiders can’t destroy our beautiful Ladakh,” he said, insisting he had been a peaceful participant, part of the hunger strike, not the procession.
SSP Norboo said the situation took a turn for the worst around 10:30 am and was brought under control by 5 pm. “They came with kerosene bottles. There is no way they have so much kerosene here, so they procured it and came prepared. This appears to have been planned. However, when exactly did it start will only be clear once we zero down on those who made direct calls for violence and participated in it leading the mob,” he said.
Behind the calm
In picturesque Leh, a deceptive calm prevailed Thursday and Friday morning, but the anger among protesters, mostly those in their early 20s, has not died down. Asked if he would take to the streets again, Namgal didn’t hesitate before answering. “I think so. We’ve been asking for it for years. Why stop now?”
Echoing similar sentiments, Jerry, who is from Paddar in J&K and has been living in Leh for the last five years where he works for a motorcycle rental company, said “the anger is against the BJP, not anyone else”.
“That’s why their (BJP’s) office was targeted. We went there for a confrontation, some youngsters picked up stones but the police too resorted to firing. It was from both sides but protesters didn’t have guns like them,” he said.
Referring to the demand for Sixth Schedule protections, Jerry said the hunger strikes “began two years ago and stayed peaceful, but the Centre disrespected Ladakhis’ patience”.
“People from all religions joined the procession. Talks have been stalled since May; now they say October,” he said, staring at minor injuries he suffered on his fingers during the Wednesday’s violence. “Of course, the youth is agitated. I am too,” the 23-year-old added.
Senior police officials, on the other hand, said they have evidence of protesters carrying weapons, adding that some security personnel suffered life-threatening injuries.
“There were many outsiders in the protest. We are investigating how this was mobilised,” said Ladakh DGP S.D. Singh Jamwal. A list of the injured, accessed by ThePrint, mentions residents of Doda and other parts of Jammu, as well as Bihar and even Nepal.
The Leh Apex Body has denied the claim that “outsiders” were part of the protest, adding that residents of Jammu or Bihar injured in the violence were bystanders.
DGP Jamwal told ThePrint that Wangchuk and “politicians like members of the Congress party incited the people of Ladakh”.
“Leh Apex Body officially organised the general protest but not this violent demonstration. Sonam Wangchuk has earlier asked people to wear masks while protesting due to COVID but in reality he is asking them to be careful so that they aren’t identified. He referred to violence in Sri Lanka and Nepal in his speeches. He has been to Islamabad too. This was also slow cooked,” he said.
Wangchuk, a day before his arrest, had termed this a “scapegoat tactic”. Nearly all of the protesters ThePrint spoke to echoed this sentiment. Wangchuck, they maintained, had nothing to do with the violence and the mob comprised youngsters who turned up at NDS ground Wednesday. They couldn’t, however, pinpoint the individuals who led the mob.
Meanwhile, at the NDS ground, site of the hunger strike led by Wangchuk, the walls are plastered with posters of “6th schedule for ladakh, save ladakh himalayas”. Wednesday’s violence has left behind scars that may take years to heal.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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