Climate Activist Sonam Wangchuk: Two days after demonstrations calling for Ladakh’s statehood and Sixth Schedule status in the Union Territory left four people dead and 90 injured, police on Friday detained climate activist Sonam Wangchuk. According to the officials, Wangchuk was moved out of Ladakh after being arrested at 2:30 pm by a police team led by S D Singh Jamwal, the chief of the Ladakh Police.

National Security Act Against Wangchuk: 

The allegations against Wangchuk were not made public, but according to insiders in the Ladakh government, the strict National Security Act (NSA) has been used against the climate activist. As a precaution, the administration also cut off mobile internet connections in the Leh region. The five-year-long initiative for statehood and constitutional safeguards for the residents of Leh and Kargil, which are part of the Ladakh Union territory carved out from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, has been spearheaded by Wangchuk, a leading voice for the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA).

Also Read: H1-B Visa Selection Reform: India Shares Its View

It is reported that Wangchuk has been accused of encouraging youth for the latest protest. Even though all the other accusations have been disputed, the center has accused him for for this reason only. Wangchuk stated on Thursday that the violence was a sign of irate young people and that “to say it was instigated by me is to find a scapegoat, rather than addressing the core of the problem, and this will lead us nowhere.”

A day before the arrest, the Union Home Ministry revoked the FCRA license of Wangchuk’s organization, the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), on the grounds of purported financial irregularities and a fund transfer that was judged to be against “national interest.”

Share

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•