SRINAGAR: Climate activist and Leh Apex Body (LAB) member Sonam Wangchuk was placed under house arrest on Thursday amid protests in Ladakh against the administration’s decision to hold hill council elections on December 4, despite demands for their postponement due to harsh winter conditions.
Wangchuk disclosed the restrictions in a post on social media platform X, claiming that dozens of armed security personnel had been deployed around his residence.
The development came a day after police removed Wangchuk from the protest site at NDS Memorial Park in Leh, where he had gone on Wednesday evening to oversee preparations for the agitation. Police initially told him that he had been advised to remain at his residence.
Subsequently, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Leh, issued formal preventive orders imposing restrictions on his activities.
The police order cited Wangchuk’s activities and alleged attempts to instigate the public, stating that these had affected public order in the past and that his future demonstrations could again lead to a disturbance of peace.
The restrictions came amid a wider crackdown on protests following the administration’s decision to prohibit demonstrations ahead of the forthcoming hill council, municipal and panchayat elections.
Despite the restrictions and heavy security deployment in Leh and Kargil, the Leh Apex Body said people from different sections of society participated in a peaceful sit-in on Thursday.
In a statement, the LAB said the participation reflected the people’s faith in peaceful and democratic means of protest and their determination to raise legitimate demands while exercising their constitutional right to protest.
The organisation also maintained that its agitation was not directed against holding hill council elections but against scheduling them during the harsh winter months, when a substantial section of Ladakh’s population remains outside the region.
Addressing the protesters, LAB co-chairman Chering Dorjay Lakrook said holding elections in December could deprive a large number of eligible voters of their democratic right.
He claimed that nearly 30 per cent of Ladakh’s population remains outside the region during winter, making participation in the electoral process difficult.
Lakrook also alleged manipulation of electoral rolls and the removal of Gen Z voters, describing the alleged exercise as ‘Operation Lotus’.
Earlier, Wangchuk and other LAB representatives had issued an appeal to President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking deferment of the elections on account of severe winter conditions and the possibility of voter exclusion.
The administration had imposed a ban on protests on Wednesday in view of the December 4 hill council elections and municipal and panchayat polls scheduled for November 21.
The elections follow an October 20 notification paving the way for the constitution of hill councils in all eight districts of Ladakh, including the newly created Sankoo district. Until now, Ladakh had two autonomous hill development councils, one each in Leh and Kargil.
Chief Secretary Ashish Kundra has described the forthcoming hill council elections as a watershed moment for democracy in Ladakh.
Defending the election schedule, Kundra argued that schools in the region remain open until December 15 and that if children can attend classes during the winter, adults should also be able to exercise their right to vote.
Polling for the hill council and panchayat elections will be followed by counting of votes on December 8.
