New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has ordered a month-long deployment of a dozen Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) companies in the Union Territory of Ladakh starting 31 August, ThePrint has learnt. Sources in the UT administration said it was a “precautionary move”, a year after the deadly 24 September Leh violence, as resentment persists over unfulfilled promises of compensation.
Sources in the police headquarters however called the MHA’s deployment routine, adding that the CRPF companies would be deployed for law and order duties in the UT’s newly-created districts.
Among the 12 companies, two have been drawn from the Rapid Action Force (RAF), the anti-riot wing of the CRPF, a government order further said. ThePrint has seen a copy of the order.
The deployment has been ordered for the period between 31 August and 30 September—coinciding with the first anniversary of the violence in the Union territory that led to the deaths of four locals and left dozens injured. The violence had broken out in Ladakh—a UT known for tourism and tough terrain and a strategically important border with China— days after youths from the Leh Apex Body (LAB) sat on a hunger strike demanding the Sixth Schedule and statehood for Ladakh. What began as a peaceful protest erupted into chaos as security forces and youth clashed on the streets.
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk had joined the hunger strike in Leh and had been spearheading the agitation for statehood and other demands for about two years. He was later detained under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and shifted out of the UT to a Jodhpur jail. Six months later, the MHA announced its decision to revoke Wangchuk’s detention of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk “with immediate effect” by exercising its powers under the National Security Act (NSA).
MHA’s deployment order comes days after the LAB, which was at the forefront of the protest last year, announced it would observe ‘Martyrs’ Month’ between Monday and 24 September to demand justice for the victims of last year’s violence.
ThePrint has reached out to Ladakh DGP Anand Jain and Chief Secretary Ashish Kundra for comment via WhatsApp texts and calls. This report will be updated if and when they respond.
“Attention is invited to Special Secretary (Home Department). UT of Ladakh dated 12.08.2026. requesting the deployment of 12 Coys in UT of Ladakh for maintaining L&O (law and order),” the MHA order read. “The UT Administration of Ladakh is requested to work out the detailed deployment plan, in regular consultation with the respective CAPFS. Necessary transportation/logistics/accommodation and other arrangements required in connection with deployment of CAPFs within the UT, as per the requirement of the forces, may kindly be arranged by the UT Administration.”
Sharing a border with China, Ladakh already has more than half a dozen battalions of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) deployed. However, ITBP is not preferred for law-and-order duties in the UT, said officials familiar with the security arrangements.
Sources in the UT administration termed the deployment order a “precautionary move”. “The families of four people who had died in the violence were assured compensation by the administration, which has not been granted yet, and people may have deep-seated resentment about it,” a source in Ladakh administration told ThePrint.
However, the officer asserted that the compensation would be granted within the next few days.
Earlier this week, leaders of the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Ladakh MP Haji Haneefa Jan raised demands such as an elected assembly headed by a Chief Minister, greater control over Home Affairs, Public Order and Police, and a separate Ladakh Public Service Commission during a meeting with MHA officials in Leh.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: An ‘unbearably curious’ boy who became voice of Ladakh—a village recalls the story of Sonam Wangchuk