Ladakh: Activist Sonam Wangchuk withdraws call for march to LAC citing ‘suppression’ by government
The restrictions imposed by the administration had created chances of violence, which could then be used to label the movement ‘anti-national’, Wangchuk said.
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Saturday withdrew his call for a protest march from Ladakh’s Leh to the Line of Actual Control planned for Sunday.
The march was meant to highlight the scale of the alleged Chinese intrusions in Ladakh and the land taken over by Indian corporates. Local tribal leaders were to lead the protest.
Ahead of the protest, the administration of the Union Territory had imposed prohibitory orders against gatherings under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the area.
Under these circumstances, “chances of violence are very high, which could then be used to label this peaceful movement anti-national”, Wangchuk said in a social media post on Saturday.
On March 26, Wangchuk ended his 21-day hunger strike that demanded statehood for Ladakh and the protection of the Himalayan ecology. Wangchuk and other civil society leaders in Ladakh are also trying to press the Union government to implement the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution for Ladakh.
The Sixth Schedule under Article 244 (Administration of Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas) of the Constitution guarantees certain protections for land and a nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal areas. In Ladakh, while more than 97% of the population belong to Scheduled Tribes, Kargil is a Muslim-majority region.
The march on Sunday to the Line of Actual...
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