Prominent activist and educator from Ladakh, Sonam Wangchuk on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) said civil society groups would constitute a “people’s tribunal” to probe the “police excess and firing” which led to the death of four persons, including a Kargil war veteran, on September 24, 2025, if the government appointed judicial panel did not table its report soon.
Mr. Wangchuk alleged that automatic weapons were used against protesters despite there being no firing orders. He said the inquiry report was crucial to establish the circumstances that led to the firing and subsequent deaths and injuries.
Following the September 24, 2025 incident at Leh city, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on October 17, 2025 notified a Judicial Inquiry to be conducted by Justice B.S Chauhan, former Judge, Supreme Court. The mandate of the panel is to probe the circumstances leading to the serious law and order situation, the police action and the resultant unfortunate death of the four individuals. In February, Justice (retd.) Chauhan was appointed head of the three-member Commission of Inquiry to probe the 2023 Manipur ethnic violence.
In an interview with The Hindu, Mr. Wangchuk, who is now part of a high-powered committee to hold talks with the MHA to demand constitutional safeguards for Ladakh, said all affidavits and other submissions before the judicial inquiry had been completed long ago, but there was no indication about when its findings would be made public.
“That is a serious grievance in the martyrs’ memorial month. One year after the incident, we don’t even have justice for these martyrs. Who is right and who is wrong has to be cleared,” he said.
Mr. Wangchuk said he had not personally deposed before the inquiry as he was in jail when the proceedings were under way. “People here are saying maybe we should constitute an alternative judicial inquiry through respectable retired judges, a people’s tribunal kind of thing, because the government-instituted commission is just not coming out with the report,” he said.
One-day padayatra
He has announced a one-day, 20-km symbolic padayatra on September 23 to commemorate those killed in the violence and press for justice. The march would start from Karu, where villagers constructed a sthupa in memory of one of those killed, and conclude at the Martyrs’ Memorial Park in Leh around 6 p.m. A longer march was abandoned because of inclement weather, he said.
Mr. Wangchuk also responded to former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Thupstan Chhewang’s recent allegation that he was “misleading” the people of Ladakh about the outcome of the September 9 meeting with the MHA. Mr. Wangchuk alleged that Mr. Chhewang had been “drifting away from the Ladakhi people’s stand and more towards the government stand” after resigning from the Leh Apex Body (LAB). He said the former MP attended the meetings as a special invitee and did not represent the LAB. Mr. Chhewang is among the first leaders in Ladakh to launch the movement in 2020 seeking constitutional safeguards for the region after Article 370 ceased to apply to the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, of which Ladakh was a part.
Mr. Wangchuk also criticised the compensation announced by the Union Territory administration for those killed and injured in the violence, describing it as inadequate. He said the civil society groups had sought substantially higher compensation for the victims.
“It has been seen more as insult to the injury, you know, ₹15 lakh for a person killed for no reason with no firing orders, and ₹3 lakh for injured. Whereas in Delhi, they have agreed to ₹1 crore compensation. So this is a serious grievance,” he said.
On the September 9 meeting between Ladakh representatives and the MHA, Mr. Wangchuk said the Centre had reiterated its earlier proposals for a “sui generis”, or tailor-made, democratic arrangement for Ladakh and safeguards under Article 371 of the Constitution, which was a repetition of the proposal made on May 22 and that Ladakhi representatives were expecting the government to place detailed drafts before them in September.
“We had sent our non-negotiable points to be included in the draft. But on September 9, after all of us flew to Delhi, we discovered that it was just a PowerPoint presentation of what happened on May 22. There was hardly anything new,” Mr. Wangchuk said.
He alleged that the September meeting had been scheduled to dissuade people from participating in a padayatra (footmarch) that was to begin the following day. He similarly questioned the decision to hold the next round of talks in October, saying September was being observed in Ladakh as a month to commemorate those killed.
Mr. Wangchuk, however, said he hoped negotiations would now progress and that the proposed model of governance for Ladakh would be brought before Parliament during its winter session.
Withdrawal of cases
On the administration’s announcement regarding the withdrawal of criminal cases registered following the violence, Mr. Wangchuk said Ladakhi groups wanted all cases to be withdrawn rather than their withdrawal in phases. He claimed that several people booked after the violence were bystanders or individuals who had attempted to stop the clashes.
The LAB and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) have been negotiating with the MHA over their demands for constitutional safeguards for Ladakh, greater political representation and protection of land and employment rights. Mr. Wangchuk said the two groups also wanted the administration to refrain from taking far-reaching decisions on land, industries and local governance while negotiations over a new political arrangement were under way.
Published – September 22, 2026 10:39 pm IST
