After Private Fact-Finding Report On Ladakh Violence, Chief Secretary’s Response

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NDTV | October 5, 2025 | 11:09 AM IST | Breaking News, Ladakh (Union Territory) | Tags: India News Today | Follow on Google News

After Private Fact-Finding Report On Ladakh Violence, Chief Secretary’s Response

New Delhi: Ladakh Chief Secretary Pawan Kotwal has held “certain sections” responsible for working to sabotage talks after they realised the dialogue process would be able to meet most of the demands of the people of Ladakh.

The core demands include having a legislature in the Union Territory and bringing the mountainous region under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which provides for the administration of tribal areas through an autonomous governance structure.

Many issues were being addressed through talks between the Centre’s high-powered committee (HPC) and the two organisations, Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), Kotwal said.

Certain sections worked in a negative manner and sabotaged the dialogue process for personal and political gains at the cost of the interests of Ladakh, the Chief Secretary said, adding these sections with a premeditated approach aimed to derail the process, continued with hunger strike despite scheduled talks and misled the people

A combination of these factors led to a law and order situation on September 24, and subsequent unfortunate developments of loss of four precious lives, said the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory (UT) formed in August 2019 after the Centre scrapped special status to Jammu and Kashmir and divided the state into two UTs.

Investigating agencies have got evidence, and more will come out, the Chief Secretary said in a detailed response today after some groups held a press conference to announce a fact-finding report they have prepared on Ladakh.

However, , such fact-finding exercises by individuals and groups – not a formal, court-monitored one – are often criticised by their opponents as lacking in accuracy and objectivity when claims are contested.

The fact-finding report, released in Delhi today in the presence of Samajwadi Party MP Iqra Hasan, was jointly prepared by the Socialist Party (India), the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), and Hum Bharat Ke Log.

The Social Party (India) calls itself an “independent incarnation of the Congress Socialist Party formed in 1934 within the Congress”; NAPM is an organisation founded by activist Medha Patkar, and Hum Bharat Ke Log is an organisation launched in April this year to promote Gandhian values.

One of the key points in the report talked about the arrest of activist Sonam Wangchuk under the stringent National Security Act as “deeply unfortunate.” Wangchuk has been sent to a jail in Rajasthan.

“Sonam Wangchuk is not Amritpal Singh that he should be taken away from Ladakh and jailed in another state,” Socialist Party (India) Secretary Sandeep Pandey said, and sought the activist’s release along with 45 others who were detained following the protests last month.

Amritpal Singh was once Punjab’s most wanted criminal. After his arrest, he fought the general election from jail and won.

Activist Sajjad Kargili said Ladakh has only one Lok Sabha MP despite having a larger population than a state like Sikkim. The BJP has not yet fulfilled its promise to bring Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule’s protection, he added.

Iqra Hasan, the Samajwadi Party MP, alleged protests are being criminalised, and even MPs are being stopped from traveling to states. “Citizens demanding jobs or constitutional rights are being jailed. This is not democracy,” she said.

Lok Sabha Seat Matter

The issue of increasing the Lok Sabha seat for Ladakh was discussed at the high-powered committee meeting, and it was observed that it would be taken up at the time of delimitation, the Chief Secretary said. Policies are not just guided by population because even with a small population, Ladakh will remain the government’s priority, he said.

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‘Demographic Change A Lie’

There is absolutely no sign of demographic changes and cultural homogenisation, the Chief Secretary said. By using the words “demographic flooding” and “cultural genocide”, some organisations are misleading the people and creating a smokescreen, he added.

“Regarding the issue of solar parks, industrialisation and environmental degradation, it is reiterated that we are moving on a firm path of developing a carbon neutral Ladakh. Nothing will happen without consultation and consent of the local community. There has been no mining activities in Ladakh at all. There is no commercial exploitation of resources at all. Politically motivated organisations should not mislead people,” the Chief Secretary said.

On the matter of land, he said all powers continue to rest with the respective Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDCs).

“We have already started making land laws more people friendly. No power of the LAHDCs will be taken away. On the contrary, the capital expenditure budget of every LAHDC has increased from a mere Rs 150 crore before Ladakh became a UT to Rs 750 crore,” the Chief Secretary said.

Ladakh’s gradual swing from cheering on becoming a Union Territory in 2019 after the Centre scrapped special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution, to the current tension due to demand for statehood, had led to speculation that foreign hands and local vested interests could be involved in engineering the crisis.

However, discontentment has been brewing for the last few years over a perceived political vacuum under the Chief Secretary. This factor led to the coming together of political and religious groups from Buddhist-majority Leh and Muslim-majority Kargil under joint platforms to raise their demands.

NDTV