Wangchuk held under NSA over Ladakh clash

SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: Police on Friday detained activist Sonam Wangchuk under the draconian National Security Act (NSA) and flew him from Leh to Jodhpur, people aware of the matter said, two days after protests over statehood and land protections roiled Ladakh and left four people dead and 100 injured.

- Mir Ehsan and Prawesh Lama

The Union government has blamed Wangchuk, a climate activist who won the Magsaysay Award in 2018 and who was among the leading figures of the Ladakh statehood movement, for provoking the clashes on Wednesday. A day later, the Union home ministry cancelled the foreign funding licence of a non-governmental organisation run by Wangchuk.

Wangchuk was taken into custody by a police party led by Ladakh Police chief SD Singh Jamwal at 2.30pm, an official said on condition of anonymity, adding that he was shifted out of Ladakh afterwards. The development was widely condemned by opposition parties, including Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah.

The administration snapped mobile internet services in the Leh area as a precautionary measure. There was no official word on Wangchuk's detention but officials, and people close to the activist, said that the NSA a stringent 1980 law under which authorities can detain a person for up to 12 months without producing him in court was invoked against the 59-year-old.

Wangchuk, who first started a hunger strike to push for statehood on September 10 but gave it up when violence flared up on Wednesday, had called a press meet at Hotel Abduz in Leh on Friday but failed to reach the venue.

Vice president of the Leh Apex Body (LAB), Chering Dorjey, said Wangchuk never reached the press meet. "We came to know he was arrested either from his village or somewhere close to Leh. The situation won't improve by his detention but is going to cause further unease," Dorjey added.

Wangchuk's wife, Gitanjali Angmo, said they were at their home in Uleytokpo village when three senior police officials arrived, accompanied by over a hundred police officers. "The police took him away. Later, I received a call from an inspector in Leh who said Wangchuk was detained under NSA," she said. Angmo added that Wanchuk.