New Delhi: Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and a few others from Ladakh paid their respects at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial Rajghat on Wednesday evening. They thereafter announced that they had been freed from police custody and had broken their fast.
Sonam Wangchuk released after being detained in Delhi
According to Mr. Wangchuk, the group has concluded their fast and submitted a letter outlining their demands to the administration. They were also promised a meeting with top leadership in the near future.
After visiting the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. Wangchuk told the media, “We have given a memorandum to the government to protect Ladakh so that its ecology can be preserved. In this case, it is the Sixth Schedule, which gives locals the right to govern and manage the resources.”
“Locals should be empowered in the Himalayas because they can best preserve it,” he stated.
“In the coming days, we will meet the prime minister, president or home minister, this is the assurance we have been given by the home ministry,” he stated.
“We have called for a democratic system in Ladakh, which includes the Sixth Schedule. We will meet with top leadership, as promised, and the exact date of the meeting will be announced in a few days, Mr. Wangchuk stated.
The release of Mr. Wangchuk and the other “padayatris” in the evening was confirmed by a senior police officer.
“They were allowed to go after an assurance from them of not gathering or holding any yatra as Section 163 is imposed in central parts of the national capital,” stated the officer.
While other ‘padayatris’ were housed at three different police stations near the Delhi-Haryana border, Sonam Wangchuk was detained at the Bawana police station.
Police officers drove all of them in busses till they arrived to Rajghat at around 9.30 p.m., after which Mr. Wangchuk and the other “padayatris” were permitted to leave.
Mr. Wangchuk may remain in Delhi for a few more days, according to police sources, in order to arrange a meeting with the government.
Mr. Wangchuk said they have been informed that talks with the representatives of the Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance will continue within 15 days.
Demands arising for Ladakh
The “Delhi Chalo Padyatra,” which started in Leh a month ago, was being led by Mr. Wangchuk. Approximately 170 individuals from Ladakh were arrested on Monday night at the Singhu border in Delhi. They were taken to various police stations where they began with a hunger strike. The marchers were demanding, among other things, protections for the Union Territory under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) and the Leh Apex Body (LAB) coordinated the march. For the past four years, they have been leading an agitation to demand statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, early recruitment, along with a public service commission for Ladakh and separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts.
Delhi Police had detained them citing the imposition of section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.
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