Police arrest climate activist Sonam Wangchuk in Leh, shift him to jail in Rajasthan's Jodhpur

Leh, Sep 26 (PTI) Police arrested climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Friday, two days after protests demanding Ladakh's statehood and Sixth Schedule status left four people dead and 90 injured in the Union Territory.

Wangchuk was taken into custody by a police party led by Ladakh Police chief S D Singh Jamwal at 2:30 pm, officials said, adding that he was subsequently lodged in a jail in Rajasthan's Jodhpur.

While there was no official word on the charges pressed against Wangchuk, sources within the Ladakh administration indicated that the stringent National Security Act (NSA) has been invoked against the climate activist.

The Union Territory administration has also snapped mobile internet services in the Leh area as a precautionary measure.

Wangchuk, a leading voice for the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), has been spearheading a five-year-long agitation demanding statehood and constitutional safeguards for the residents of Leh and Kargil, which form part of the Union Territory of Ladakh that was carved out from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.

The BJP-led Centre has blamed the climate activist for inciting the recent violence in Leh but Wangchuk has denied all the allegations.

"To say it was instigated by me is to find a scapegoat rather than addressing the core of the problem and this will lead us nowhere," Wangchuk said on Thursday, adding that the violence was an indication that youngsters in the region were frustrated.

The arrest came a day after the Union home ministry cancelled the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) licence of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), an organisation founded by Wangchuk, citing alleged financial discrepancies and a fund transfer deemed to be against "national interest". PTI TAS SKL RC