Magisterial inquiry ordered into Leh violence; report expected in four weeks

The Ladakh administration on Thursday ordered a magisterial probe into the incident. The inquiry will be conducted by Mukul Beniwal, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Nubra, who has been directed by the Deputy Commissioner, Leh, to submit his report within four weeks.

This comes after the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), which are spearheading the ongoing agitation in Ladakh, have demanded a judicial inquiry into the police firing on protesters in Leh on September 24 that left four people dead.

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Leh town witnessed large-scale violence on September 24 when protestors set fire to the BJP office and ransacked the office of the BJP-controlled Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC). In the subsequent police firing, four people, including a Kargil War veteran, were killed and about 90 others injured.

Several personnel of the CRPF and Ladakh Police were also hurt in the stone pelting that accompanied the unrest.

In a public notice, Beniwal said the inquiry committee has been tasked with ascertaining the facts and circumstances that led to the law and order breakdown, police action, and the deaths. The four deceased were identified as Jigmet Dorjey of Kharnak, Rinchen Dadul of Hanu, Stanzin Namgail of Igoo, and Tsewang Tharchin, a former soldier, of Skurbuchan. He also appealed to the public to come forward with any information that could help reconstruct the sequence of events that led to the violence.

Meanwhile, the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) and the All Ladakh Gonpa Association, after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his 156th birth anniversary, passed a unanimous resolution demanding an impartial judicial inquiry into what they described as the “excessive” use of force and indiscriminate firing by the Ladakh Police and paramilitary forces that killed four youths and several injured.They also sought adequate compensation for the families of those “martyred” and seriously injured.

Additionally, the resolution called for the immediate release of environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been detained under the National Security Act (NSA) and lodged in Jodhpur jail, as well as the release of all other people arrested during the protests.

The resolution, signed by LAB co-chairman Chhering Dorjay Lakrook, also urged the Ladakh administration to stop the alleged “witch-hunting” and harassment of innocent civilians. In a separate development, seven student organisations from Ladakh submitted a joint memorandum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding a judicial inquiry by a sitting High Court judge into the police firing. They too sought the immediate release of Wangchuk and other detainees, and demanded that media houses which allegedly defamed the Ladakhi community should issue public apologies.