Ladakh group warns of stronger agitation ahead of September 9 talks with Home Ministry

The Leh Apex Body has warned of a stronger agitation if talks with India’s Ministry of Home Affairs on September 9 fail to deliver concrete progress on Ladakh’s demands.

The group is seeking legislation for Ladakh at the Union Territory level, safeguards under Article 371, the withdrawal of cases filed after violence on September 24 last year, compensation for victims and publication of the inquiry commission’s report. The Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance have jointly led the campaign since Ladakh became a Union Territory in August 2019 and have held several rounds of talks with the central government since 2021.

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If the meeting produces a positive outcome... and if there is constructive and result-oriented dialogue on these issues, we will welcome it. Otherwise, we will intensify our agitation very strongly.

Apex Body chairman Chering Dorje Lakruk welcomed the meeting but said its value would be judged by the outcome. “If the meeting produces a positive outcome... and if there is constructive and result-oriented dialogue on these issues, we will welcome it. Otherwise, we will intensify our agitation very strongly,” he said.

Lakruk criticized the delay in the inquiry report into last year’s September 24 incidents, which claimed four lives. He also questioned why cases against people booked over the violence remain pending. While welcoming reports that cases connected to a July 20 incident at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar could be withdrawn, he accused the central government of applying a double standard to Ladakh. He said only 25 of the 80 cases linked to last year’s violence had been withdrawn.

“We are all Indians, and everyone should be treated equally. The lives of the people of Ladakh are not so cheap,” Lakruk said, calling for compensation for the relatives of those killed and for people wounded during the agitation.

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We are all Indians, and everyone should be treated equally. The lives of the people of Ladakh are not so cheap.

Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk said the Apex Body was observing September as a “Martyrs’ Month” to remember those killed, injured and jailed last year. Several events were planned, while a proposed Kargil-to-Leh padyatra scheduled to begin on September 10 was postponed because of the Home Ministry talks. Wangchuk said the march could return around five days before September 24 if the talks fail, and that organizers would again ask people across India to support Ladakh, its environment and its residents.

Wangchuk said the Apex Body expected the government to bring a detailed draft on a proposed Ladakh Assembly, including its powers and rights, to the September 9 meeting.

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We have collectively decided to postpone the padyatra for the time being.