Sonam Wangchuk says he is under house arrest in Leh as Ladakh protests the December 4 hill council polls

Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk said on Thursday night that he is under house arrest in Leh, a day after Ladakh Police removed him from a protest site and escorted him home. Police say the step is preventive and follows election-time prohibitory orders; the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance say it is an attempt to silence peaceful dissent.

“I AM UNDER HOUSE ARREST,” Wangchuk wrote on X, adding that dozens of armed guards surrounded his house while “the government version says ‘I have been advised to stay at home’.” In a video posted late on Thursday on X and Facebook, he said 20 to 25 police and paramilitary personnel, with vehicles and tents, had been outside his residence since Wednesday night, and that armed personnel took positions on all sides of the house during the day.

What happened on Wednesday

Wangchuk said he and leaders of the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) were preparing a dharna on Wednesday evening when “some people calling themselves policemen” told them not to move out. He described them as wearing masks and hoodies and looking “more like hooligans than policemen”. He told them he was ready to be arrested. Instead, he said, they escorted him to his institute, where his home is, and told him not to leave the premises.

Ladakh Police said the action was preventive and in line with prohibitory orders from the Chief Electoral Officer of the Union Territory and the District Magistrate, Leh. Those orders regulate rallies, protests and gatherings within Leh municipality while the election process is on. According to reports, an Additional District Magistrate order dated November 11 also bars Wangchuk for 60 days from organising or joining unauthorised rallies or processions that could disturb public peace or obstruct the elections.

Wangchuk rejected the “advised to stay at home” description. He asked how a person could be stopped from joining a peaceful protest without being formally arrested, and said he would go to a magistrate, then the High Court and the Supreme Court. He also said the reach of his X, Instagram and YouTube accounts had been sharply suppressed. No official has responded to that claim.

Why Ladakh is protesting

The trigger is the election calendar. Chief Secretary Ashish Kundra announced on November 10 that polls to all eight Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils will be held on December 4, and he said a December vote would give the new councils three months to draft budgets for next year. Municipal and panchayat elections are scheduled for November 21.

LAB and KDA say a winter poll is unacceptable. Many residents, including students, leave Ladakh in the coldest months and would lose their vote, and sub-zero temperatures would make it hard for voters and polling staff alike. Ladakh MP Mohmad Haneefa Jan had urged holding the polls in March or April.

Wangchuk has a second grievance: the report of the judicial inquiry commission into September 24, 2025, when a protest in Leh turned violent and police firing killed four people. He says the report is moving at a “snail’s pace” and alleges it is being suppressed. He also calls the council election “phoney” and says the councils have been left without meaningful powers.

How we got here

The council poll is the latest strain in a year of failed talks. In May, the Centre and Ladakh’s leaders reached an in-principle understanding on safeguards along the lines of Articles 371A, 371F and 371G. On October 16 the Home Ministry handed over a 32-page draft that LAB and KDA threw out within hours, and the amended hill council regulation gave the administration power to fix the number of elected seats. On October 22 Wangchuk said the round of talks expected that day had been called off. Our explainer on Article 371-K sets out what the draft offered and why Leh and Kargil refused it.

Reactions

KDA co-chairman Sajjad Kargili called the police action unjustified. “Under no circumstances can anyone be prevented from expressing their dissent in a peaceful manner,” he said, accusing the administration of bureaucratic high-handedness, intimidation and pressure. His co-chairman Asgar Ali Karbalai said the orders and notifications meant to silence public voices were “nothing but an attempt to undermine democracy in the name of democracy”.

MP Haneefa Jan said a LAB member had been stopped from leaving home to join Thursday’s demonstration.

DIG Leh-Kargil range Kaushal Sharma defended the police. “Peace is paramount,” he said, adding that the Election Commission’s guidelines bar protests within municipal limits during the election period and that police act in accordance with the rule book where a breach of peace is suspected. He called the security deployment and barricades temporary, urged people to take part in the democratic process, and acknowledged a trust deficit after last year’s violence, saying lapses by any party must not be repeated.

Not everyone in Ladakh wants a boycott. Former MP Thupstan Chhewang has urged full participation on December 4, noting that both the BJP and the Congress have announced they will contest.

Why it matters

For residents of Leh, the dispute is about two things that touch daily life: whether they can vote, and whether they can protest. Students and seasonal workers who leave in winter are the people the groups say would be shut out of an election held on December 4. For the Centre, the question is how to run a credible election in a Union Territory where its main political groupings are in open opposition to it, in the same region where police firing killed four people last year.

What happens next

The KDA is sending a delegation to Leh on Friday to show solidarity and seek a meeting with Wangchuk and LAB chairman Chering Dorje Lakruk, and will hold a candle march in Kargil at 6 pm. The two groups have announced further candle marches and sit-ins. Municipal and panchayat polls are due on November 21 and the hill council polls on December 4. Wangchuk says he will move the magistrate first; no hearing date has been given, and the Home Ministry has not commented on the restrictions.