Arrest of Noted Environmental Activist Fuels Unrest in Ladakh

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

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Ladakh is boiling, and it is not good news for India. It is through this cold Himalayan desert at the northern tip of India that the highly contentious Line of Actual Control, the de facto border between India and China, runs.

Ladakh lies amid disputed territories. The China-held Aksai Chin, which India claims, lies to the east and the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered-Kashmir sits to its north. Due to a history of conflict with both Pakistan and China, its borders remain highly sensitive. The last thing India needs in Ladakh is internal disturbance. But that’s what is happening.

On September 24, protests demanding protection of local interests suddenly turned violent and an office of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Leh was vandalized and set afire. Locals accused the BJP of fooling them with false promises. Subsequently, four protesters were killed in police firing.

The police crackdown that followed, along with administrative attempts to brand the movement as aided by Pakistan, has thrown the icy desert into a frying pan. At the time of filing this report on September 29, curfew and mobile internet suspension are still in force.

Apart from the police firing, the arrest of Ramon Magsaysay awardee and noted educationist-environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk, who emerged as the most prominent face of the protests, has angered locals. Wangchuk is one of Ladakh’s best-known personalities, partly because the popular character Rancho from the Bollywood blockbuster, “Three Idiots,” was based on him.

“People are deeply angry with the highhandedness of the authorities. Their trust in the administration has fallen significantly,” Ladakh Buddhist Association President Chering Dorjay Lakruk told The Diplomat. He also serves as the co-convenor of Leh Apex Body (LAB), the most influential organization in Ladakh’s Leh district.

Following the violence, the police and paramilitary forces arrested a few dozen persons on charges of vandalism and attacking security personnel. However, in a show of solidarity with the protesters, the Bar Association Leh decided to pro bono defend everyone named in police complaints. They demanded a high-level judicial inquiry under a magistrate’s supervision.