Fury in the Cold Desert

The protest on September 24 in Ladakh was meant to press the Centre for talks on statehood and Sixth Schedule status, but it turned violent leaving four people dead and nearly 90 injured

- Ishfaq Naseem IS SENIOR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, OUTLOOK. HE IS BASED IN SRINAGAR

JIGMET Stanzin, 34, lies in a crowded ward at the Sonam Narbo Memorial (SNM) Hospital in Leh, nursing a hand injury. A tear gas shell had exploded as he tried to fling the canister away from the protesting crowd of which he was part. He was among those injured when security forces opened fire to disperse a protest in the town square on September 24.

What began as a call for statehood and inclusion of Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution ended with hospital beds filling up and frantic families waiting outside for news of the wounded.

Jigmet, a technical graduate, had joined a march called by the Leh Apex Body (LAB), a coalition of politicians and activists in Buddhist-majority Leh. The protest on September 24 was meant to press the Centre for talks on statehood and Sixth Schedule status, demands that had been pending for months. A local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office was torched and the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) premises were also burnt and vandalised during the protests, which left four dead, injured nearly 90 people, including security personnel, and saw dozens detained. LAB member and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, a Ramon Magsaysay Award winner who sat on a hunger strike along with several local people to further the demand for statehood, has been arrested under the National Security Act (NSA), drawing widespread condemnation.

Families of those arrested said their kin had been taken into custody even though they were not part of the demonstrations, which have drawn national attention to the rugged hilly northern Union Territory (UT), otherwise known for its stunning barren landscapes and adventure tourism. Outside SNM Hospital, Amina Banoo waited with relatives after hearing that her son Zulfikar Ali had been brought there for a routine medical check. She said Zulfikar had gone to college in the morning and had not returned home.