[Onthebarricades] LADAKH: Unrest, repression threatens "another Kashmir"

Fri Jun 8 06:54:26 PDT 2007

            Welcome to Kashmir Times 

      Online Edition | Features 
           Creating Ladakh another Kashmir!
            By Tsewang Rigzin
            Creating Ladakh another Kashmir! Leh Ladakh is known as one of the most peaceful places in India with peace loving and honest people living in for centuries. For some westerners Ladakh is a heaven on earth. Ever since Ladakh became a part of the democratic India, Ladakhis, through their representatives, have always voiced to have direct links with New Delhi and accordingly the leaders of this trans-Himalayan enclave have been demanding the Union Territory status to preserve Ladakh's unique cultural, linguistic and the geo-climatic conditions. With its unique conditions Ladakh is like a different country to the rest of Jammu & Kashmir. People of Ladakh have been very proud to be Indians right from the day when Ladakh became a part of the Indian Union. Unlike some other parts of the country, never before in the last more than five decades, there had been any extreme incidents of torturing innocent public during elections, though Leh too has had the presence of different national and regional political parties. 
            During the recently fought by-election for the lower Leh constituency of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) in May, this year saw some most regrettable acts of the District Police in Leh as the councilor from Sakti, Mr Gyal Wangyal and three Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF) workers Mr. Thupstan Rinchen, Mr. Tanyot Tashi and Mr. Nawang Shespa were arrested and tortured by the police on charges of allegedly extorting money from non-local traders. According to the police the four persons were arrested following complaints from some non-local traders of Leh. The complaint seemed to have been arranged by the S.S.P. Leh, Mr. Alok Kumar, himself as the traders say that at about 12 O'clock at midnight the S.S.P. forced them to sign on a paper with something written in Urdu. All the allegations leveled on the arrested persons turned out to be untrue as the next day following the incident non-local traders in Leh kept their business establishments closed and marched in large numbers to the Leh police station to confirm that nobody had extorted any money from them, besides issuing a statement clarifying that they had voluntarily donated money to LUTF out of generosity. Police apparently resorted to lathi charge with the traders at the police station. Some of the traders who could go inside the police station reported to have witnessed the merciless torture meted out to the four arrested Ladakhis by making them naked publicly. The arrests were later shifted into the S.N.M. Hospital. The whole episode looked like a fraudulent act the S.S.P. Leh, Mr. Alok Kumar, and his subordinates in the same stratagem who are stationed here to maintain peace and tranquility in the region.
            One thing that led the incident suspicious of being politically motivated was that among the four arrested persons only Mr. Gyal Wangyal, an elected public representative, was in the LUTF funds raising committee. So the question arose on the arrest of other three workers who belong to one particular political party. Suspecting the arrests as fabricated, LUTF condemned the atrocities meted out to its members. The party also demanded the immediate transfer of SSP, Leh and SHO Leh against their gross manipulation of power amounting to destabilize the harmony of Leh region. When the chief executive councilor, executive councilors and almost all councilors of LAHDC, Leh, staged a dharna to demand the release of the LUTF workers, the police confirmed that the arrests were exercised following an instruction from their superior. This further led the LUTF to suspect the incident as politically motivated by the state government apparently to suppress the UT demand. Congress office in Leh earlier demanded a thorough investigation into the matter but what could have been avoided was the statement that the party later issued appreciating the actions of the District Police. 
            Earlier in the month of March another dramatic episode in Leh involving the District Police was the first-ever custodial death in Ladakh when Havildar Tsering Tondup of the Ladakh Scout was found death in the police custody. Mr. Tsering Tundup was found drunk and the police in Leh after getting him checked in the S.N.M. Hospital kept him in the custody and the next morning Tsering Tundup was found dead in a mysterious circumstances. The District Police led by the S.S.P. Mr. Alok Kumar claimed that Tundup had committed suicide inside the lock up. This made even the laymen in the society to think that how someone commits suicide in the custody with the presence of other inmates and police on guard. Even common sense tells us that it becomes the duty of the police to save the life of any arrested person from anything that could go wrong in the custody. After quiet a furor in Leh for a few days the postmortem was conducted and samples of some organs of the departed soldier have reportedly been sent for a forensic test in laboratory outside Ladakh and the report of which is still awaited. Both the above incidents are repeatedly debated in Leh today and fair and thorough investigations are also wished. Fabricated tortures and the first-ever custodial death have made the public also to think suspiciously towards the acts of the police and citizens are now finding Leh also an insecure place to live in. Have the police in Leh started taking law into their hands? Are Ladakhis being just silent spectators? If series of such incidents occurred and neglected again, patriotic Ladakhis will soon loose faith in the system. Therefore, it is high time that Ladakhi leaders, irrespective of being associated with any political party or organization, putting aside their egos and rising above the political differences should come forward to speak up against such victimization that the innocent public has to suffer. At such situations let us first be Ladakhis rather than stanch Congresspersons and LUTF persons. 
            *(The author is Executive Councilor for Tourism and Arts, Culture & Languages, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh. Mobile: 9419179035).
--------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recent Activity
  a..  6New Members
Visit Your Group 
Yahoo! News
Movies News

All the latest

on films and stars

Yahoo! Mail
Get it all!

With the all-new

Yahoo! Mail Beta

Y! GeoCities
Free Blogging

Share your views

with the world.
. 
__,_._,___ 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/onthebarricades/attachments/20070608/4478970c/attachment.html>