Ladakh protests: Protestors demanding statehood and the Sixth Schedule for Ladakh set a BJP office on fire, and police fired teargas shells to disperse them on Wednesday (September 24). This triggered a massive shutdown sponsored by the Leh Apex Body (LAB) in Ladakh’s Leh town. Four were killed and 30 others were injured in intense clashes between protesters and security personnel. Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 15-day hunger fast following the violence. In a social media post, Wangchuk appealed to Ladakh’s youth, urging them to protest peacefully and not derail the movement of over five years, which seeks to urge the Centre to advance talks on the long-pending demands. VERY SAD EVENTS IN LEH My message of peaceful path failed today. I appeal to youth to please stop this nonsense. This only damages our cause.#LadakhAnshan pic.twitter.com/CzTNHoUkoC — Sonam Wangchuk (@Wangchuk66) September 24, 2025 Here is what to know. What has spurred the protests in Ladakh? The issue dates back to 2019, since Article 370 was repealed and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 was passed. The result was the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature, and Ladakh without one. The political and legal status of Ladakh has remained contentious since, with the people of the UT finding themselves under direct central administration. What is the demand for the Sixth Schedule in Ladakh? Given that over 90% of Ladakh’s population belongs to the Scheduled Tribes, there has been a consistent demand to include the region under the Sixth Schedule. The Sixth Schedule under Article 244 of the Indian Constitution provides for the formation of autonomous administrative regions called Autonomous District Councils (ADCs), which govern tribal-majority areas in certain northeastern states. ADCs have up to 30 members with a term of five years and can make laws, rules and regulations on land, forest, water, agriculture, village councils, health, sanitation, village- and town-level policing, etc. Currently, there are 10 ADCs in the North East, with three each in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram, and one in Tripura. Who is Sonam Wangchuk? Wangchuk is an engineer and innovator of sustainable products. He is best known as having inspired a character essayed by Aamir Khan in the 2009 Hindi film 3 Idiots. In 2018, he was awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, in recognition of “his uniquely systematic, collaborative and community-driven reform of learning systems in remote northern India, thus improving the life opportunities of Ladakhi youth, and his constructive engagement of all sectors in local society… setting an example for minority peoples in the world.” What is Wangchuk’s role in the protests? In recent years, Wangchuk has flagged issues related to autonomy in the administration of Ladakh. In 2019, He wrote a letter to then-Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda seeking Scheduled Area status for Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Munda responded with a letter, saying his ministry was “seized of the matter” and it had communicated a proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, there was no subsequent discussion on the subject with the leaders of Ladakh, Wangchuk said in 2023. Student-led protests in 2019 were supported by former MP Thupstan Chhewang, who then created the Leh Apex Body (ABL). Organisations in Kargil also came together to form the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA). Wangchuk has maintained that protections under the Sixth Schedule were an election promise made by the BJP in 2019, and that the Government of India has to keep its word. He also said the people of Ladakh have demanded the decentralisation of power as they believe that “lower levels of bureaucracy” may have been “influenced by industrial powers and business houses”, who wanted “mining to take place in every valley here”. Is this the first time protests have broken out? No. On March 6 2024, two days after talks among the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the ABL and KDA fizzled out, Wangchuk and others began a fast in Leh. He subsisted on water and salt and slept outdoors in sub-zero temperatures for 21 days. Subsequently, a planned ‘Pashmina march’ to the China border was cancelled, with Wangchuk claiming the administration told them Section 144 would be imposed, which prohibited unlawful assemblies. The march meant to highlight the issues faced by shepherds who have traditionally reared the famed Pashmina goats in Leh. These included the loss of land to corporations who planned to set up large industrial plants, and the activities of the Chinese along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), according to Wangchuk. Many in Leh had initially welcomed the 2019 moves revoking special status for J&K, and had demanded UT status and separation from the administrative set-up of J&K. However, Ladakhis soon began to feel the loss of significant powers of the autonomous hill development councils, and the shortage of jobs after being delinked from the J&K recruitment boards. In September 2024, the ‘Delhi Chalo Padyatra’ was organised by the LAB, with a four-point agenda for the support of Ladakh’s statehood, extension of the Sixth Schedule, early recruitment process, as well as a public service commission for Ladakh and separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts.
