{"id":4309,"date":"2025-09-24T18:49:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T18:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/world\/five-killed-in-protests-for-statehood-in-indian-occupied-ladakh-say-police\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T18:49:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T18:49:00","slug":"five-killed-in-protests-for-statehood-in-indian-occupied-ladakh-say-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/world\/five-killed-in-protests-for-statehood-in-indian-occupied-ladakh-say-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Five killed in protests for statehood in ‘Indian-occupied’ Ladakh, say police"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Smoke rises from a police vehicle that was torched by the demonstrators near the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in Leh on September 24, 2025. \u2014 AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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  • Protesters torch BJP office and police vehicle in Leh.<\/b><\/li>\n
  • Police use tear gas and batons, dozens reported injured.<\/b><\/li>\n
  • Activist Sonam Wangchuk on hunger strike, demands statehood.
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    At least five people were killed on Wednesday as police clashed with hundreds of protesters demanding greater autonomy in the Himalayan territory of Indian occupied Ladakh, leaving “dozens” injured, police said.<\/p>\n

    In the main city of Leh, demonstrators torched a police vehicle and the offices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, while officers fired tear gas and used batons to disperse crowds, police said.<\/p>\n

    “Five deaths were reported after the protests,” a police officer in Leh told AFP<\/i>, on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to journalists. “The number of injured is in the dozens.”<\/p>\n

    Another police officer, Regzin Sangdup, told AFP <\/i>that “several people, including some policemen, were injured.”<\/p>\n

    Authorities later imposed restrictions on gatherings, banning assemblies of more than four people.<\/p>\n

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    A police vehicle torched by the demonstrators is pictured along a street near the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in Leh on September 24, 2025. \u2014 AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

    The sparsely populated, high-altitude desert region, home to some 300,000 people, borders both China and Pakistan.<\/p>\n

    Around half of Ladakh’s residents are Muslim and about 40% are Buddhist.<\/p>\n

    It is classed as a “Union Territory” \u2014 meaning that while it elects lawmakers to the national parliament, it is governed directly by New Delhi.<\/p>\n

    Wednesday’s demonstrations were organised in solidarity with prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on hunger strike for two weeks.<\/p>\n

    He is demanding either full statehood for Ladakh or constitutional protections for its tribal communities, land and fragile environment.<\/p>\n

    “Social unrest arises when you keep young people unemployed and deprive them of their democratic rights,” Wangchuk said, in a statement posted on social media.<\/p>\n

    He appealed to people to avoid violence “whatever happens”.<\/p>\n

    India’s army maintains a large presence in Ladakh, which includes disputed border areas with China.<\/p>\n

    Troops from the two countries clashed there in 2020, leaving at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead.<\/p>\n

    Modi’s government split Ladakh off from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, imposing direct rule on both.<\/p>\n

    New Delhi has yet to fulfil its promise to include Ladakh in the “Sixth Schedule” of India’s constitution, which allows people to make their own laws and policies.<\/p>\n

    “There is no platform for democracy here today,” Wangchuk said. “Even the Sixth Schedule, which was promised and declared, has not been implemented.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n