A protest in the Indian Himalayan region of Ladakh demanding statehood for the federal territory has turned violent as protesters clashed with police and set fire to a paramilitary vehicle and the office of the country’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Police fired tear gas and charged with batons at the demonstrators, injuring dozens of them, police said on Wednesday. Some among the injured were in critical condition, residents said.
Authorities banned assembly of more than five people in Leh district, the capital of the Ladakh region, following the clashes.
No official statement has been released on casualties, but a local activist, who has been on hunger strike seeking more power for the region bordering China, told Indian media that three to five people are believed to have been killed on Wednesday in police gunfire.
“We have reports that many people have been injured. We don’t know the exact count,” Sonam Wangchuk was quoted as saying by the Indian Express site.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the casualty figures.
Protests erupted after youth groups called for the shutdown of Leh.
The protests are part of a larger movement in the federally-governed region that seeks statehood and constitutional provisions from the Indian government for autonomy over land and agriculture decisions.
Ladakh lost its autonomy in 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government carved the region out of India-administered Kashmir. Since then, the majority Muslim-Buddhist territory has been directly governed from New Delhi.
Protesters have called for Ladakh to be given special status that would allow for the creation of elected local bodies to protect its tribal areas.
At its core, the protests are calling for Ladakh to be included under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which provides provisions for tribal areas and allows local communities to have a say in how the regions are administered.
Wangchuk called for restraint as he called off his hunger strike, which he launched two weeks ago. “My message of peaceful path failed today. I appeal to [the] youth to please stop this nonsense. This only damages our cause,” he said.
In a public notice, District Administrator Romil Singh Donk announced a ban on demonstrations, public gatherings and inflammatory speech to maintain peace.
Activists and local politicians in Ladakh have accused Modi’s government of not addressing their concerns. Several rounds of talks between local politicians and representatives from New Delhi in the past few years have not yielded results.
The next round of talks is expected to take place on October 6.
Ladakh, which shares a long border with China, is a strategically important territory for India.
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