LEH, Ladakh: Indian security forces have killed at least four Ladakhi protesters demanding statehood for the region, unilaterally stripped of its status by the Modi-led government in 2019.
The Himalayan region of Ladakh is already a sensitive flashpoint between India and China. It witnessed its deadliest protest on Wednesday as Gen Z-led demonstrations turned violent in the capital Leh.
Protesters torched the regional office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), leading to clashes with police that left at least four demonstrators dead and dozens injured, protest coordinators told Al Jazeera.
Authorities also confirmed that dozens of security personnel were wounded.
What are the demands?
For six years, Ladakhi activists have staged peaceful marches and hunger strikes demanding constitutional safeguards and statehood, arguing that New Delhi has stripped them of political representation since 2019.
But Wednesday marked a break from that tradition when youth groups, frustrated over the government’s delay in talks, stormed official buildings after a hunger strike entered its 15th day.
“It was an outburst of youth, a kind of Gen-Z revolution, that brought them on streets,” said Sonam Wangchuk, an educator who has been leading hunger strikes, in a video statement.
The immediate spark came after two senior activists were hospitalised on Tuesday following two weeks of fasting, prompting organisers to call for a shutdown. By evening, angry protesters moved from Leh’s Martyrs’ Memorial Park to the BJP office, raising slogans and clashing with security forces.
“This is the bloodiest day in the history of Ladakh,” said Jigmat Paljor, coordinator of the Ladakh Apex Body, the coalition behind the protests. “They martyred our young people who were simply demanding their rights.” His organisation later suspended the hunger strike to ease tensions.
India’s home ministry described the protesters as an “unruly mob,” saying police were forced to open fire after more than 30 personnel were injured.
It alleged that Wangchuk had incited the unrest by drawing parallels with uprisings in Nepal and the Arab Spring, a charge he rejected, insisting he had never endorsed violence.
Lack of statehood
The unrest reflects growing anger over Ladakh’s lack of statehood and constitutional protections since its separation from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
Locals, over 90 percent of whom are Scheduled Tribes, have been demanding inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which grants autonomous governance to tribal regions, Al Jazeera reported.
Unemployment has worsened the frustration. Despite a literacy rate of 97 per cent, higher than the national average, a 2023 survey showed 26.5 per cent of Ladakh’s graduates remain jobless — double India’s overall rate.
Since India revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in 2019, Ladakh has been governed directly by bureaucrats, without a legislature. Protesters argue that this has eroded their identity, limited job opportunities, and left them without a voice in New Delhi.
Wednesday’s violence, analysts say, has opened a new front of internal unrest for India in a region already central to its border tensions with China.
