Collected photo

SRINAGAR, India, Sept 24, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Five people were killed in India 
on Wednesday as police clashed with hundreds of protesters demanding greater 
autonomy in the Himalayan territory of Ladakh, leaving "dozens" injured, 
police said.

In the main city of Leh, demonstrators torched a police vehicle and the 
offices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, while 
officers fired tear gas and used batons to disperse crowds, police said.

"Five deaths were reported after the protests," a police officer in Leh told 
AFP, on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to 
journalists. "The number of injured is in the dozens."

Another police officer, Regzin Sangdup, told AFP that "several people, 
including some policemen, were injured."

Authorities later imposed restrictions on gatherings, banning assemblies of 
more than four people.

The sparsely populated, high-altitude desert region, home to some 300,000 
people, borders both China and Pakistan.

Around half of Ladakh's residents are Muslim and about 40 percent are 
Buddhist.

It is classed as a "Union Territory" -- meaning that while it elects 
lawmakers to the national parliament, it is governed directly by New Delhi.

Wednesday's demonstrations were organised in solidarity with prominent 
activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on hunger strike for two weeks.

He is demanding either full statehood for Ladakh or constitutional 
protections for its tribal communities, land and fragile environment.

"Social unrest arises when you keep young people unemployed and deprive them 
of their democratic rights," Wangchuk said, in a statement posted on social 
media.

He appealed to people to avoid violence "whatever happens".

India's army maintains a large presence in Ladakh, which includes disputed 
border areas with China.

Troops from the two countries clashed there in 2020, leaving at least 20 
Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead.

Modi's government split Ladakh off from Indian-administered Kashmir in 2019, 
imposing direct rule on both.

New Delhi has yet to fulfil its promise to include Ladakh in the "Sixth 
Schedule" of India's constitution, which allows people to make their own laws 
and policies.

"There is no platform for democracy here today," Wangchuk said. "Even the 
Sixth Schedule, which was promised and declared, has not been implemented."