NEW DELHI: The Centre claimed that “certain politically motivated individuals, who were not happy with progress made under talks with the High Powered Committee (HPC),” were behind the violence that took place in Ladakh on Wednesday.
The violence happened during a protest in support of environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on a hunger strike for the past fortnight demanding statehood and 6th schedule status for Ladakh.
The Centre also said it was clear that the mob was incited by “Shri Sonam Wangchuk through his provocative statements”.
In an official statement the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said, “A hunger strike was started by Shri Sonam Wangchuk on 10-09-2025 stating the demand of 6th schedule and statehood for Ladakh. It is well known that the Government of India has been actively engaged with Apex Body Leh and Kargil Democratic Alliance on the same issues.
“Series of meetings were held with them through formal channels of the High-Powered Committee as well as the Sub-committee and multiple informal meetings with leaders,” the statement further read.
Noting that the process of dialogue through this mechanism has yielded phenomenal results, it said that reservation for Ladakh scheduled tribe has been increased from 45 per cent to 84 per cent, one-third reservations for women in the councils was agreed and Bhoti and Purgi have been declared official languages.
“With these in place, the recruitment process to fill 1,800 posts has already commenced,” it said.
“The next meeting of the HPC has been scheduled for October 6, while meetings are also planned for September 25 and 26 with the leaders from Ladakh,” the MHA said, adding that the demands on which Wangchuk was on hunger strike “are integral part of the discussion in the HPC”.
“In spite of many leaders urging to call off the hunger strike he continued with the hunger strike and misleading the people through provocative mention of Arab Spring-style protest and references to Gen Z protests in Nepal,” the MHA alleged.
It, however, said that barring unfortunate incidents that happened early in the day, the situation was brought under control by 4 pm in the afternoon and it was clear that the mob was incited by “Shri Sonam Wangchuk through his provocative statements”, though he broke his fast and left for his village in an ambulance without making serious efforts to control the situation.
The MHA also announced that the government stood committed to the aspiration of people of Ladakh by providing adequate constitutional safeguards and advised people “not to circulate the old and provocative videos in the media and social media”.