Leh: The police crackdown following the recent violence in Leh has intensified, with four individuals, including two sitting Congress councillors, remanded to police custody.
At the same time, the Bar Association Leh has stepped forward to defend dozens of youth leaders and councillors, demanding a judicial inquiry into the incident and terming the allegations against them politically motivated.
On Saturday, Congress councillors Phuntsog Stanzin Tsepag, representing Upper Leh Ward, and Smanla Dorjee Norboo from Saspol, both of whom were named in an FIR linked to Wednesday’s violence, surrendered before the court and were taken into police custody along with two others.
While several of the accused have been sent to judicial custody, police secured custody of these four for interrogation. Sources said that all four individuals surrendered voluntarily and maintained that they were innocent and wrongly implicated in the case.
According to the Bar Association Leh, a number of prominent youth leaders and community representatives have also been booked in multiple FIRs.
Among them are Jigmet Rabstan, President of the Ladakh Buddhist Association (Youth Wing), Imtiyaz Hussain, President of Anjuman Imamiya Youth, and Irfan Bardi, President of Anjuman Moin-Ul-Islam. Members of the Apex Body and several other councillors are also facing charges. The FIRs have invoked sections 192, 351, and 109 of the IPC, which include a mix of bailable and non-bailable offences.
The Association stressed that in most cases only one offence is non-bailable and insisted that there is little evidence or witness testimony against many of those accused of instigating the violence.
Bar Association President Mohd Shafi Lassu said the organisation has taken up all the cases pro bono, defending the accused individuals.
He voiced concern that the ongoing movement for Ladakh’s statehood and constitutional safeguards was being deliberately branded as anti-national. “Even those killed during the firing include an ex-Army personnel. This movement is not anti-national,” Lassu said, urging the authorities to exercise restraint.
The Association has demanded a high-level judicial inquiry under magistrate supervision into both the violence and the police firing, which left four people dead and dozens injured.
