Ladakh groups to hold internal meeting ahead of February 4 talks with Centre

Ahead of a meeting of the High-Powered Committee (HPC) between the Union Home Ministry and Ladakh leaders scheduled for February 4, the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) will hold an internal discussion in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The Union Home Ministry has convened the HPC meeting for Wednesday, marking the first high-level engagement since last year’s violence in Leh, in which four people were killed and around 90 injured during protests.

Leh Apex Body co-chairman Cherring Dorjay Lakruk, who is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on Tuesday, confirmed that leaders of the two groups will meet ahead of the official talks. “We hold internal discussions before every official meeting,” he told The Tribune.

Sources said that the HPC meeting will focus on core demands already submitted to the Union Home Ministry. “There is no change in our core demands,” a leader said.

During the meeting, Ladakh leaders are also expected to seek the release of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, who is currently lodged in a Rajasthan jail after being booked under the National Security Act (NSA).

The HPC, chaired by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, was constituted three years ago to hold talks with Ladakh-based groups led by the LAB and the KDA. The committee last met in May, while another meeting scheduled for October last year could not be held.

Ahead of the proposed October meeting, clashes erupted in Leh in September during protests demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh.

Last year, subcommittee-level discussions were held between Home Ministry officials and Ladakh leaders, during which a draft proposal outlining key demands—including statehood and Sixth Schedule status for the Union Territory—was submitted.

Ahead of the February 4 meeting, residents and political leaders in Ladakh remain hopeful that the talks will lead to an amicable resolution of their long-pending demands.

Sajjad Kargili, a leader of the Kargil Democratic Alliance, said recent interactions with the Home Ministry had yielded little progress. “People are hoping that at least some amicable solutions will emerge on the basic demands in the upcoming meeting,” he said.