NEW DELHI: Ladakh-based local weather activist and training reformer Sonam Wangchuk and over 170 individuals, who had been on approach to the nationwide capital as a part of their Delhi Chalo Padyatra demanding sixth schedule standing for the UT, had been detained by Delhi Police on the Singhu border on Monday night time for allegedly “violating prohibitory orders”.
Wangchuk and 173 detainees, who’re housed in police stations in Bawana, Narela and Kanjhawala, started an indefinite starvation strike in protest towards their detention.
Delhi CM Atishi was not allowed to fulfill Wangchuk when she visited Bawana police station.
‘We’re on a peaceable march, but being held like criminals’
I’m certain the LG referred to as the cops and ordered them to not let me meet Wangchuk,” CM Atishi stated. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and chief of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi criticised the detentions. The police motion led to a wave of protests.
The local weather activist began his march from Leh on Sept 1 to advocate for the inclusion of Ladakh within the Sixth Schedule of the Structure to safe particular safety for tribal areas. “I’m being detained, together with 150 padyatris, on the Delhi border by a police pressure of lots of, some say a thousand. Many aged women and men of their 80s and some dozen Military veterans. Our destiny is unknown. We had been on a most peaceable march to Bapu’s samadhi within the largest democracy on this planet, the mom of democracy. Hai Ram!” Wangchuk had posted on Monday.
Delhi Police will take a name on releasing Wangchuk and his supporters. They’re being requested to not enter Delhi in massive numbers as part 163 BNS (previously part 144) is in place within the metropolis.
One of many detainees at Arya Samaj Ashram in Narela, the place 23 girls and 7 males have been lodged, stated they’re on a peaceable march and but they’re being held like criminals. “I joined this march from Solang Valley. We didn’t face any issues wherever as such. We even saved in thoughts that we must always not disturb Haryana throughout this election time and bypassed it. However look what is going on. That is dictatorship. Our individuals have been divided. Some have been saved right here, whereas we don’t know the place the others are. We gained’t eat now. We didn’t come this far to eat,” she stated.
Dr Jyoti, a physician who visited the Bawana police station, stated, “All of them, together with Wangchuk, should not consuming something. They had been going through some points for which I prescribed medicines.”
One other detainee, Sajjad Kargili, a political activist, stated, “We, together with some elected members of Ladakh, had been detained round 9.30pm on Monday. That is extraordinarily shameful and undemocratic. It’s deeply unlucky that whereas individuals like Ram Rahim are granted parole, the peaceable individuals of Ladakh are denied entry into Delhi.”
Ladakh MP Haji Hanifa Jan stated he was solely allowed to fulfill Wangchuk for five minutes at 3 am. “There are such a lot of issues in Ladakh after it turned a Union territory. There isn’t any cultural identification left and youth is troubled. They’ve been sitting on a quick for years now. Wangchuk was supporting these points and main the padyatra. They accomplished over 700 km to succeed in the Delhi border. However the motion taken is a approach to silence these voices,” he stated.
Whereas the ambiance contained in the police stations was tense, the state of affairs exterior was equally grim. A crowd of supporters gathered, awaiting information of Wangchuk’s launch. Amongst them was a 50-year-old girl from Gurgaon, a former pupil of Wangchuk who had participated in a ‘Solar and Earth’ pageant he organised in Ladakh. “He at all times made an effort to attach with every pupil through the programme. We stand by the reality. We tried to fulfill him, however entry has been denied. Wangchuk’s calls for are completely justified. Granting Ladakh the Sixth Schedule won’t solely profit the area however your complete nation. The Himalayas are essential for all of India,” she stated.
AAP staff rallied exterior the Bawana police station, calling the LG “a dictator”. Nationwide Alliance of Individuals’s Actions additionally condemned the detentions throughout a press convention attended by environmentalist Prafulla Samantara, local weather skilled Soumya Dutta, Suniti SR, and social activist Medha Patkar. An indication befell in Leh. Kargil Democratic Alliance introduced a protest rally in Kargil for Wednesday in response to the detention of padyatris.
