Detained activist Sonam Wangchuk has said that he is prepared to remain in jail until an independent judicial inquiry is ordered into the deaths of four persons in police firing during protests in Leh on September 24.

Wangchuk’s lawyer, Mustafa Haji, and his elder brother, Ka Tsetan Dorjey Ley, met him on Friday at Jodhpur Central Jail. They posted a message from him on social media on Sunday.

“I am doing well, both physically and mentally and thank everyone for their concern and prayers,” the activist said in his message. “My heartfelt condolences to the families of those people who lost their lives and my prayers with people who are injured and are arrested.”

Wangchuk was arrested under the National Security Act in Leh on September 26, two days after four persons were killed in police firing during protests seeking constitutional safeguards for Ladakh. He was later taken to the jail in Jodhpur.

The police firing and violence broke out during protests demanding statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Demonstrators clashed with and threw stones at the police, and set fire to the Bharatiya Janata Party office and a police vehicle.

The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution guarantees protection for land and nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal-dominated areas. In Ladakh, more than 97% of the population belongs to the Scheduled Tribes.

The Union government has claimed that the violence was incited by Wangchuk’s “provocative statements”.

In his message, Wangchuk said that he stood firmly with the Apex Body Leh, the Kargil Democratic Alliance and the residents of Ladakh in “our genuine constitutional demand for Sixth Schedule and statehood…”

The Apex Body Leh and Kargil Democratic Alliance are civil society coalitions that have been leading the movement seeking constitutional safeguards for Ladakh.

“…Whatever actions Apex Body takes in the interest of Ladakh, I am with them, wholeheartedly,” the activist added.

He also appealed to the public “to keep peace and unity and continue with our struggle peacefully – in the true Gandhian way of non-violence”.

On Thursday, Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali J Angmo, filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging his detention. The court is currently on Dussehra vacation and will reopen on Monday.

Angmo, the founder and chief executive officer of Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh, in a social media post on Friday, also said that she has had no contact with her husband since his arrest a week ago.

Meanwhile, the administration in Ladakh on Thursday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the deaths of the four persons in the police firing on September 24.

Demand for constitutional safeguards

On August 5, 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the state into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The lack of a legislature in Ladakh has led to increasing insecurities among the residents of the Union Territory about their land, nature, resources and livelihoods and stoked fears that the region’s cultural identity and fragile ecosystem may be in jeopardy.

In this backdrop, civil society groups have been demanding that Ladakh be included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which would allow for the creation of autonomous development councils to govern land, public health and agriculture.

Following Wangchuk’s detention, the Apex Body Leh and Kargil Democratic Alliance withdrew from ongoing talks with the government, stating that “talks cannot be held at gunpoint”.

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