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Activist Sonam Wangchuk out of jail 6 months after Ladakh protest: Why govt revoked NSA, what it said earlier
The MHA decision came while the Supreme Court has been hearing a habeas corpus petition challenging his incarceration since September last year.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Saturday revoked the detention of Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk, under the National Security Act (NSA), citing a need to facilitate dialogue in the region.
Leading organisations in the union territory (UT) of Ladakh have been demanding greater autonomy and climate protections within the Indian Constitution.
Wangchuk, 58, was held at the Jodhpur Central Jail in Rajasthan since September 26, 2025 — nearly six months — after ongoing protests in Ladakh turned violent in the UT's main city Leh, where four people died and over 160 were injured.
He was released by the evening. The decision on Saturday came while the Supreme Court has been hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by his wife against his jailing.
The government had consistently maintained he “instigated” the unrest. On Saturday, though, it said it needed to release him to ensure peace and an end to “atmosphere of bandhs and protests”.
Sajjad Kargili, leader of the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) that collaborates with the Leh Apex Body (LAB) for Ladakh’s demands, reacted: “The revocation of NSA against Shri Sonam Wangchuk is a welcome move. However, our struggle of our legitimate rights continues.” He demanded that activists Deldan Namgial and Smanla Dorjey also be released and “all charges against those detained on 24 Sept be dropped unconditionally”, in his post on X.
Also read | ‘No space for violence’ vs ‘baseless claims’: Reactions pour in after Sonam Wangchuk’s release
The most recent round of talks between the Ladakh organisations and the MHA were “wholesome and constructive”, the government said in February.
Some reports, however, said the meeting was inconclusive after the LAB and KDA reiterated their demands for statehood and inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
What the government said on release decision
In a statement issued by the Press Information Bureau, the MHA on Saturday acknowledged the broader toll his continued detention was taking on Ladakh's civil society. "The prevailing atmosphere of bandhs and protests has been detrimental to the peace-loving character of the society and has adversely affected various sections of the community, including students, job aspirants, businesses, tour operators and tourists and overall economy," the ministry stated.
The statement noted that Wangchuk "has already undergone nearly half of the period of detention" under the Act — the NSA permits detention for up to 12 months — and reaffirmed commitment to resolving Ladakh's concerns "through constructive engagement and dialogue, including through the mechanism of the High-Powered Committee”.
What the NSA is
The National Security Act of 1980 is a preventive detention law that empowers central and state governments to detain an individual without trial if authorities believe the person is likely to act in a manner "prejudicial to the defence of India, the relations of India with foreign powers, or the security of India”.
Unlike ordinary arrest, which requires a criminal charge and a trial, the NSA allows detention purely on the basis of anticipated threat. That makes it one of the most sweeping provisions in Indian law. The maximum period of detention is 12 months, though it may be revoked earlier, as has now occurred in Wangchuk's case.
What govt argued in court on Wangchuk
The government's detention of Wangchuk was defended vigorously before the Supreme Court by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj over several months of hearings.
The Centre and the Ladakh union territory administration told the court that Wangchuk was detained for instigating people in a sensitive border area where regional sensitivity was involved.
The Centre pointedly alleged that Wangchuk tried to “instigate Gen Z”, a reference to those in their 20s, for protests similar to those seen in Nepal and Bangladesh. It noted that Wangchuk had referred to an “Arab Spring-like” agitation. SG Mehta had told the court there was a "stark distinction between Wangchuk's speech and Gandhian principles — it's chalk and cheese”.
The government recently also assured the court there was nothing medically alarming about Wangchuk's condition. He was taken to AIIMS Jodhpur in January for tests.
What his wife Gitanjali said: ‘Fear not peace’
Wangchuk's wife, Dr Gitanjali Angmo, filed the petition under Article 32 of the Constitution challenging the detention as illegal and unconstitutional.
She contended the detention was based on "stale FIRs, vague imputations, and speculative assertions", and lacked any connection to the stated reasons.
Angmo also alleged a "witch-hunt”, pointing out that the government had, in the period around his arrest, cancelled the 40-year lease of his Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, withdrawn a funding licence of his NGO, initiated a CBI inquiry, and issued Income Tax summons.
She noted that Wangchuk had publicly condemned the violence on September 24, 2025, through social media, calling it the saddest day of his life. He had also said that violence would undo Ladakh's five years of peaceful "tapasya" (struggle) for statehood and Sixth Schedule protections.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, arguing on Angmo's behalf, alleged the police had relied on "borrowed, selective videos" to mislead the detaining authority. He pointed to discrepancies between the allegedly “inciteful” statements cited in the detention order, and the translated speeches the Centre had placed before the court.
The Supreme Court bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and PB Varale was to watch videos of Wangchuk's speeches during the Holi vacation and was scheduled to reserve orders on March 17. The Centre’s decision comes three days before that.
In a recent X post, Gitanjali Angmo wrote that “fear is not peace”. She said the government's lawyers have been claiming in the SC that Ladakh is peaceful after Wangchuk's detention. “This cannot be farther from the truth,” she said, terming it “a logical fallacy” as correlation need not be causation.
“Secondly, it was not peace that followed — it was dread that was cultivated: curfew and internet blackout was enforced for weeks after September 24, 100+ youth jailed for months (some still inside), 4 young men shot dead heartlessly under Government orders by CRPF, social media posts attract police summons and hours of interrogation till date,” she said.
“The dreaded silence of the graveyard is not equal to sacred peace of the temple that Ladakh was known for!” her X post read.
After she met Wangchuk in February, she said he'd told her “this was the coldest winter in my life”.
4 demands at nub of Ladakh agitation
Even before protests led by mostly young men turned violent in Leh last September, the Leh Apex Body, an independent organisation that's been leading the protests, had warned that public patience was wearing thin.
Their demands are not merely about statehood, but a wider set focused on preserving the unique character of the mostly tribal region. Buddhist and Muslim bodies — the LAB and KDA — representing the two major communities in Ladakh, have been together in this movement.
A 35-day hunger strike was started by the leadership of the LAB on September 10, 2025.
Sonam Wangchuk's ongoing strike was under its umbrella, though he later condemned the violence as nonsensical and ended his strike in disgust.
The LAB and KDA have been in dialogue with the Ministry of Home Affairs over its demands, for which they have been agitating for the last four years, since soon after the then state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two UTs, one being J&K and the other Ladakh.
Ladakh is a strategically important region for India as it borders China and has seen related tensions over the years.
Sonam Wangchuk had said the BJP-led central government should keep had made a promise to include Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
Though the demands have been there ever since Ladakh was made a UT, the year 2024 saw it transform it into a significant agitation.
The UT of J&K got an assembly and has since got its first elected government too. Ladakh remains more centrally governed.
Ladakh also lost some of its protections when rules governing land ownership by non-locals went away, along with abrogation of Article 370 and the related special status of the undivided J&K state.
Since that move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP-led NDA government, people in Ladakh have rallied around a four-point agenda since:
- Statehood for Ladakh, as UT status has not fulfilled their demands of self-governance and protections
- Inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, to safeguard its tribal status
- Setting up a separate public service commission for Ladakh, to address joblessness
- Two parliamentary seats for Ladakh, as against the one it has for now, for more say at the Centre
The Sixth Schedule grants greater autonomy to tribal areas, such as those in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura.
Political reaction
The main Opposition party Congress, and more prominently the AAP led by Arvind Kejriwal, called for Wangchuk's release with protests and statements throughout his detention.
After the release order on Saturday, senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot said the episode raised serious questions about the functioning of the Narendra Modi-led government.
Gehlot pointed out that Wangchuk had been described as “a threat to national security” a few months ago; he stressed this could mean there was no evidence against him to begin with. He calld it a “convenient use of laws with an authoritarian mindset”.
AAP convenor Kejriwal said the case mirrors the treatment meted out to his party's top leadership in the alleged Delhi liquor scam, claiming they were kept in jail "for months and years" under fabricated charges.
"The Modi government stands exposed once again. A scientist and climate activist who had dedicated his life to the nation was arrested without any evidence," Kejriwal said in a post on X.
