2025 Ladakh violence: Wangchuk seeks release of inquiry report

A year after violence in Ladakh left four people dead and led to his detention under the National Security Act, activist Sonam Wangchuk on Sunday demanded the release of the judicial inquiry report, higher compensation for victims and accountability for the use of state powers.

The Magsaysay awardee, who was released in March this year, said the inquiry, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice B S Chauhan, should establish what happened during the police firing on September 24 last year, including whether an order to open fire was issued and whether prescribed crowd-control measures had been exhausted before live ammunition was used.

“These are not questions to be answered by rumours, accusations, or counter-accusations. That is exactly why a judicial inquiry was constituted,” he said.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi a year after his detention, Wangchuk recalled how he was taken to Jodhpur on a special flight on September 26 last year and subsequently informed that he had been detained under the NSA and would be kept in total isolation.

Wangchuk said he believed there had been a plan to kill him in an encounter on September 24 last year. “From what I understand, there was a plan to make an encounter of myself, but that could not happen,” he said, adding that he was instead taken into “total isolation” in a jail cell.