Vehicles torched by demonstrators is pictured along a street in Ladakh.
| Photo Credit: Imran Nissar
As Ladakh marks one year of the Leh violence that killed four people, climate activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk has slammed the delay in making public the judicial panel report on the September 2025 police action. The Ladakhi activist warned that a civil society-led ‘people’s panel’ will be constituted to probe the “police excess and firing” on September 24, 2025, if the government-appointed judicial panel did not table its report.
‘Padayatra’ on September 23
Mr. Wangchuk led a one-day, 20-km symbolic padayatra on September 23, 2026 to commemorate those killed in the violence and press for justice.
What happened on September 24, 2025 in Leh?
Tensions boiled over in Leh on September 24, 2025, after a youth-led protest demanding constitutional protections spiralled into a clash with security forces. It led to the death of four people and injured dozens, prompting the imposition of curfew across Leh and parts of Kargil. Mr. Wangchuk was detained under the National Security Act (NSA), on September 26, two days after the violence. He was released after 170 days of imprisonment.
A hunger strike was started by Sonam Wangchuk on September 10 to press for Statehood and inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule (tribal status). The Union Home Ministry said the Government of India had been actively engaging with the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), and despite a planned meeting on September 26 with the leaders, “a mob guided by Sonam Wangchuk’s provocative statements” caused violence. A BJP office was torched and the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) premises were vandalised.
Why did Sonam Wangchuk go on a hunger strike?
On September 10, Mr. Wangchuk and other residents on behalf of the LAB and the KDA had called for a 35-day hunger strike as the demands of Statehood and Sixth Schedule status had not been met
Following the violence, Mr. Wangchuk called off the hunger strike. Addressing a virtual press conference, he said that “nobody had an inkling something like this will happen”.
“Many leaders who came here said that peaceful protests are not enough. We never thought it will explode like this. Ladakh witnessed Gen Z frenzy today. They were not listening to anybody. They were not even afraid of bullets. This is the fifth time we have sat on a hunger strike. The youth said peaceful protests are not working… we were being told by the youth for the past few days,” Mr. Wangchuk said.
Accusing the government of defeating the peaceful protests by forcing the youth to take up violence, Mr. Wangchuk said, “We had not seen the faces of Gen Z who protested today. Till today, our complaint was that the youth are not participating and only the elderly are part of the protest. Only 25-30 youth participated so far, today it was beyond our imagination.”
What were the main demands of the protesters?
Protesters’ core demands have centred on four items: full Statehood for Ladakh; inclusion of the Union Territory in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution; separate parliamentary representation for Leh and Kargil; and job and land safeguards for residents. These issues date to 2019, when Ladakh was separated from Jammu & Kashmir and placed under direct central administration, a change that many residents say left key questions over governance and local rights unresolved.
What did Sonam Wangchuk say to ‘The Hindu’?
In an interview with The Hindu, on September 22, 2026, Mr. Wangchuk, who is now part of a high-powered committee to hold talks with the MHA to demand constitutional safeguards for Ladakh, said all affidavits and other submissions before the judicial inquiry had been completed long ago, but there was no indication about when its findings would be made public.
“One year after the incident, we don’t even have justice for these martyrs. Who is right and who is wrong has to be cleared,” he said.
Mr. Wangchuk said he had not personally deposed before the inquiry as he was in jail when the proceedings were underway. “People here are saying maybe we should constitute an alternative judicial inquiry through respectable retired judges, a people’s tribunal kind of thing, because the government-instituted commission is just not coming out with the report,” he added.
Published – September 24, 2026 06:56 am IST
