Sonam Wangchuk, who is on hunger strike in custody, has reached Delhi on foot from Leh

Academician and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, who is on a padyatra from Leh to Delhi demanding special status for Ladakh, has gone on a hunger strike. Activist Wangchuk and his 150 companions, who reached Delhi from Leh, were detained by the Delhi Police on Monday night at the Singhu border. These people have been kept in different police stations. If sources are to be believed, Sonam Wangchuk and his 30 companions have been detained at the Bawana police station. Ladakh MP Haji Hanif has been detained by the police along with his supporters at the Singhu border.

 

Sources say that Sonam Wangchuk and his companions have sat on a hunger strike inside the police station. Force has been deployed outside the police station. Satyendra, a member of the United Kisan Morcha, says that he has met Sonam Wangchuk inside the Bawana police station. He is healthy and everyone is on a hunger strike.

Politics is also being done on this issue. Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal have attacked the government sharply over the detention of Sonam Wangchuk. Rahul Gandhi has posted on his Instagram that the detention of Sonam Wangchuk ji and hundreds of Ladakhis who are peacefully marching for environment and constitutional rights is unacceptable. Why are the elders who are standing up for the future of Ladakh being detained on the Delhi border? Modi ji, like the farmers, this chakravyuh will also be broken.

 

Chief Minister Atishi will go to meet today

Delhi Chief Minister Atishi said that Sonam Wangchuk and our 150 Ladakhi brothers and sisters were coming to Delhi in a peaceful manner. The police have stopped them. They are imprisoned in Bawana police station since last night. Is it wrong to demand democratic rights for Ladakh? Is it wrong for satyagrahis to go to Gandhi Samadhi on 2 October? Stopping Sonam Wangchuk ji is dictatorship. Today at 1 pm I will go to Bawana police station to meet him.

Wangchuk got the support of Rakesh Tikait

Bharatiya Kisan Union's national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said that Sonam Wangchuk and others who were marching on foot from Ladakh to Delhi to present their views peacefully have been detained by the Delhi Police. All this is illegal and unconstitutional. We are people of a free country and we have the right to present our views. All of us are with them.

What do activists want?

Wangchuk and other activists had set out on a march from Leh to New Delhi to urge the central government to resume talks with the leadership of Ladakh regarding their demands. One of their main demands is that Ladakh be included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and one more parliamentary seat in Ladakh, demand for adequate representation in government jobs and land rights in the governance, etc. So that the local people can get the power to make laws to protect their land and cultural identity. The people of Ladakh have been protesting since 2019 regarding these. Wangchuk and about 75 volunteers started their march on foot from Leh on 1 September. He had also done a 21-day hunger strike in March before this.