Ladakh violence news: Saying that such violence has “never happened in the history” of Ladakh, Director General of Police S D Jamwal Saturday accused “so-called environmental activists” and groups who have “a question mark on their credibility” of hijacking the struggle for statehood and the Sixth Schedule.
Jamwal, while addressing a press conference in Leh a day after climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was detained under the National Security Act and moved to a jail in Jodhpur, claimed that some days ago, they detained a Person of Interest (POI) from Pakistan, who used to send “reports” about Wangchuk across the border. He said some Nepalese nationals were also part of the protest and were injured.
“Sonam Wangchuk, if you see his profile, his history, you can see that on YouTube. He instigates. He talks about Aran Spring, talks about Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He has an agenda. As far as foreign funding is concerned, a process is already going on. There is a case of FCRA violation. Let me tell you, we had arrested a Pakistani POI, who was with him… who was reporting about him and sending that across. We have a record of this. We have, like Pakistan, (a record of) where he went and did an event of (Pakistani newspaper) Dawn, and after that (to) Bangladesh. All this puts a big question mark on him. On this, different agencies, whose job it is, are investigating,” he said.
“On the first day, when the injured people were shifted, there were two Nepalese with bullet injuries; two or three were admitted to the hospital,” he said. “After that, we verified with some other people and found three or four more.”
DGP Jamwal said the police firing on protesters was in “self-defence” and to “stop this massive attack”. Four people died in police firing on Wednesday.
“On September 24, there was a very unfortunate incident here. This has never happened before in the history of Ladakh. A law-and-order situation was created. There was a lot of violence, destruction, and arson,” Jamwal said. “As a result, four people died. Many civilians, police, and paramilitary forces were injured.”
The DGP confirmed that 32 people were severely injured, while the total number of civilian injuries is around 80. He said that seven people were critically injured and one of them, a girl, was airlifted to Delhi. Jamwal said that 17 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and 15 police personnel were also injured.
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The DGP said that around 5,000-6,000 people had gathered at the site of Wangchuk’s hunger strike when some of them broke away and resorted to violence.
“Surprisingly, on the 24th, a large group gathered. There were normal groups, but many antisocial elements joined. Suddenly, a group of 5,000-6,000 people marched. The government buildings, establishments and political parties were massively damaged by stone pelting. Our forces were deployed to protect these institutions. They were inside the premises. They were attacked… A political party’s office was destroyed and set on fire,” he said.
“The CRPF soldiers were beaten badly. One soldier is admitted to the Army hospital with a serious spinal injury. Three-four soldiers were taken out with great difficulty. In the same building, four women police officers from Ladakh were trapped. The building was set on fire. You can understand how massive the attack was. It was in the same premises. It was in the council building, the headquarters of the government. It was set on fire. All the bureaucrats were in the same premises. They were all in danger. To stop this massive attack, there was a self-defence firing incident. There were four unfortunate deaths.”
“As you all know, after the formation of a Union Territory, there was a political demand for the Sixth Schedule and statehood. The two bodies here, Apex Body, Leh and KDA Kargil, have been in talks with the central government for a long time. There is a different setup. There is a High Power Committee where decisions are taken. There is also a small committee and sub-committees. There is a lot in this system,” he said. “Mr Sonam Wangchuk has done a lot of work to derail this process… There were so-called environmental activists and groups whose credibility is also questioned. They tried to hijack the platform.”
