Climate activist and education reformer Sonam Wangchuk, who has been at the forefront of Ladakh’s movement seeking statehood and constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule, was detained by police in Leh on Friday. His arrest came just minutes before he was scheduled to hold a press conference addressing the ongoing unrest.

Authorities have accused Wangchuk of inciting violent demonstrations that erupted in Leh on Wednesday. The protests turned tragic after police firing claimed four lives, while five others sustained injuries. The Centre maintains that Wangchuk’s speeches and mobilization efforts played a direct role in escalating the situation.

Wangchuk, known globally for his environmental work in the Himalayas, has been a key figure galvanizing Ladakhis around the cause of protecting their fragile ecosystem and ensuring greater political representation. Before his detention, he had remarked that putting him in jail might create “more challenges for the authorities than letting him remain free.”

His arrest has further intensified tensions in the region, where anger is already running high over issues of identity, autonomy, and ecological security. Ladakh’s people, who have long demanded statehood since its separation from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, fear unchecked industrialisation and demographic changes without constitutional safeguards.

The dramatic turn of events has now placed both the Centre and the Ladakh movement at a critical crossroads, with Wangchuk’s detention likely to become a rallying point for his supporters.