In a massive show of strength, hundreds of Buddhists of Leh and Muslims of Kargil braved the bone chilling cold weather on Saturday and stood united in support of their demand for statehood and 6th Schedule for Ladakh.
Men, women and children braving -13 degrees Celsius participated in ‘Leh Chalo’ protest march in Kargil and Leh districts that observed a complete shutdown. Transport services mostly remained off the road.
Protestors raised slogans in support of their 4-point charter of demands, statehood for the UT, Constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule for Ladakh, guarantees for job reservation for locals and separate Lok Sabha seats for the two districts.
A day before the protest, the Union Home Ministry had on Friday invited for the second round of talks at Delhi on 19 February the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) that are spearheading the ongoing agitation in Ladakh.
The Centre has set up a high power committee under the chairmanship of the minister of state for Home, Nityanand Rai, to resolve the issue. Leaders of the two organisations of Leh and Kargil are among the members of the committee.
The call for today’s ‘Leh Chalo’ protest was given by the LBA and KDA. People irrespective of their party affiliation marched through the streets of the two main towns raising slogans. Shutdown was also observed in the sub-division towns and other areas, reports said.
Rigzin Spalbar, former chairman of Leh’s Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), also supported the protest and said the entire Ladakh is on the same page on this demand.
A prominent political activist, Sajjad Kargili, took to X over the protest and wrote; “Ladakh united for statehood and sixth schedule” captioning a video of the massive march.
He wrote; “In Drass (Kargil), the second inhabitant coldest place in the world, people observed a complete shutdown in solidarity with the demand for Statehood, Sixth Schedule, and PSC and employment opportunities for Ladakh”.