Indian security forces have imposed a curfew in Leh, the capital of the Himalayan region of Ladakh, after at least four people were killed in violent clashes between police and protesters demanding statehood for the federal territory.
Dozens were also injured, and an office of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was set on fire in the unrest on Wednesday.
The government blamed activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been leading protests, for fomenting violence, a claim he denies.
A mountainous desert with a Muslim-Buddhist population, Ladakh lost its semi-autonomy in 2019 when the BJP government split it from the former Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, imposing direct rule on both.
The Leh region, where the violence broke out, is sandwiched between India, China, and Pakistan. It is dominated by the Buddhist community, who for decades have demanded a separate region for its people. Meanwhile, the Muslim-majority Kargil district wants to be integrated with Indian-administered Kashmir.
Since 2019, both communities have joined together in demanding restoration of statehood, along with greater autonomy which would give them job quotas.
It’s not clear what sparked Wednesday’s violence, but protests have been taking place intermittently in the region for months.
In a late-night statement, India’s federal home ministry blamed Mr. Wangchuk for the unrest, alleging he had incited the mob by making provocative statements.
He [Mr. Wangchuk] continued with the hunger strike and misled the people through provocative mention of Arab Spring-style protests and references to Gen-Z protests in Nepal, the statement remarked.
It also stated that protesters had attacked the BJP's local office, set fire to the building, and torched a police vehicle, injuring at least 30 police personnel. In self-defense, police had to resort to firing in which unfortunately some casualties are reported, the statement added.
Mr. Wangchuk called off a hunger strike he had been on since 12 September and appealed for calm, stating that violence only damages our cause. He denied having any role in the violence and attributed it to growing frustration among young people, many of whom have been unemployed for years.
As a well-known local activist and engineer, Mr. Wangchuk gained national attention for his work on education and climate change. He has been at the forefront of the protests demanding statehood for Ladakh.
He and other activists argue that since the change in Ladakh's status, promises that residents would get more power in local politics have not been met. Many fear that losing its former special status has left the region vulnerable to outside economic interests and diluted local control over culture, land, and resources.
The federal government denies this, stating it has held talks with local leaders since 2023 and that the dialogue process had yielded phenomenal results. According to the government, it has been actively engaged with Mr. Wangchuk and other activists on their demands, asserting that certain politically-motivated individuals were not happy with the progress in the talks.
On Wednesday, Ladakh's Lieutenant Governor Kavinder Gupta announced that an investigation into the violence had been initiated. For the past two days, attempts have been made to incite people, and the protest held here was compared to those in Bangladesh and Nepal. This smells of a conspiracy, he remarked.
Another round of meetings between protesters and officials is set to take place on Thursday and Friday, with a committee set up by the federal government likely to meet leaders from the region on 6 October.
