Wangchuk Threatens People's Tribunal Over Delayed Ladakh Firing Report

Ladakh activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk has said civil society groups may constitute a "people's tribunal" to examine the police action and firing that killed four people, including a Kargil war veteran, in Leh on September 24, 2025, if the government-appointed judicial panel does not make its findings public soon.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mr. Wangchuk alleged that automatic weapons had been used against protesters even though no firing orders had been issued. He said the inquiry report was essential to establish the circumstances that led to the firing and the deaths and injuries that followed.

The Ministry of Home Affairs notified a judicial inquiry on October 17, 2025, to be conducted by Justice B.S. Chauhan, a former judge of the Supreme Court. The panel's mandate covers the circumstances that produced the serious law and order situation, the police action and the deaths of the four individuals. Justice (retd.) Chauhan was subsequently appointed in February to head the three-member Commission of Inquiry into the 2023 Manipur ethnic violence.

Mr. Wangchuk, who is now part of a high-powered committee negotiating with the MHA on constitutional safeguards for Ladakh, said affidavits and other submissions before the inquiry had been completed long ago, but there was no indication of when the findings would be released. He said he had not deposed personally because he was in jail while the proceedings were under way.

"One year after the incident, we don't even have justice for these martyrs," he said, adding that people in the region were suggesting an alternative inquiry through respected retired judges.

He has announced a one-day, 20-km symbolic padayatra on September 23 to commemorate those killed and to press for justice. The march will begin at Karu, where villagers built a sthupa in memory of one of the dead, and end at the Martyrs' Memorial Park in Leh around 6 p.m. A longer march was dropped because of bad weather.

Mr. Wangchuk also rejected former BJP MP Thupstan Chhewang's allegation that he was misleading the people of Ladakh about the outcome of the September 9 meeting with the MHA. He said Mr. Chhewang, who resigned from the Leh Apex Body, had drifted towards the government's position and had attended the meetings only as a special invitee, not as a representative of the LAB.

On the September 9 talks, Mr. Wangchuk said the Centre had repeated its earlier proposals for a sui generis democratic arrangement for Ladakh and safeguards under Article 371, first put forward on May 22. Ladakhi representatives had expected detailed drafts in September, he said, but found only a presentation of the earlier position. He questioned the timing of the meeting and the decision to hold the next round in October, a month observed in Ladakh in memory of those killed.

He criticised the compensation announced by the Union Territory administration as inadequate, noting that ₹15 lakh had been offered for each person killed and ₹3 lakh for the injured, while authorities in Delhi had agreed to ₹1 crore in a comparable case. On the withdrawal of criminal cases registered after the violence, he said Ladakhi groups wanted all cases dropped at once rather than in phases, claiming that many of those booked were bystanders or people who had tried to stop the clashes.

The LAB and the Kargil Democratic Alliance have been negotiating with the MHA over constitutional safeguards, greater political representation and protection of land and employment rights. Mr. Wangchuk said the groups also wanted the administration to avoid far-reaching decisions on land, industry and local governance while talks on a new political arrangement continue. He expressed hope that the negotiations would move forward and that the proposed governance model for Ladakh would be placed before Parliament in the winter session.