Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk said on Monday night that he was detained at Delhi’s border along with 150 others while marching to the national capital to demand constitutional safeguards for Ladakh.

On Tuesday, Wangchuk, along with several others, launched an indefinite fast at the police stations where they have been held, The Hindu reported.

In a social media post, Wangchuk, who was leading the “Delhi Chalo” march, said that among those detained at the Singhu border in North Delhi were Army veterans and several persons above the age of 80.

“Our fate is unknown,” said the climate activist. “We were on a most peaceful march to Bapu’s Samadhi…in the largest democracy in the world, the mother of democracy.”

The march had started from Leh on September 1 and was scheduled to culminate at Rajghat, the memorial for Mahatma Gandhi, on October 2. It was organised by the civil society groups Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance.

They are demanding statehood for Ladakh, its inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, job reservation for locals and two Lok Sabha and one Rajya Sabha seats for the region.

The Sixth Schedule under Article 244 (Administration of Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas) of the Constitution of India guarantees certain protections for land and a nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal areas. In Ladakh, more than 97% of the population belongs to the Scheduled Tribes.

On August 5, 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government rescinded the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the state into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

This, along with the lack of a legislature in Ladakh, has led to increasing insecurities among the residents of the Union Territory about their land, nature, resources and livelihoods and stoked fears that the region’s cultural identity and fragile ecosystem may be in jeopardy.

Wangchuk had also undertaken a 21-day hunger strike ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in March demanding statehood for Ladakh and the protection of the Himalayan ecology.

On Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi called Wangchuk’s detention “unacceptable”.

“Why are elderly citizens being detained at Delhi’s border for standing up for Ladakh’s future?” the Congress leader asked in a social media post. “Modi ji, like with the farmers, this ‘Chakravyuh’ will be broken, and so will your arrogance. You will have to listen to Ladakh’s voice.”

Gandhi was referring to the protests by farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh against the introduction of three new farm laws in 2020. The laws were repealed in November 2021 after more than a year of protests by the farmers who held sit-in agitations at Delhi’s borders.

Earlier on Monday, the Delhi Police enforced prohibitory orders for six days till October 5, The Indian Express reported.

An order issued by the police commission had cited the prevailing “communal atmosphere” in the national capital due to the proposed Waqf Amendment Bill and the ongoing Assembly elections in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, among other issues.

The Waqf Amendment Bill proposed to amend 44 sections of the 1995 Waqf Act. On August 8, the bill was sent to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny following objections from Opposition parties after the draft legislation was introduced in the Lok Sabha.

The police claimed that the general atmosphere in Delhi was “sensitive from a law and order point of view due to various current issues” and “inputs have been received that multiple organisations have given a call for holding and organising various events in the nature of protests/demonstrations/campaigns in the territory of Delhi, in the first week of October”.

On Tuesday, an unidentified police officer told The Hindu that Wangchuk and the others were detained for violating the prohibitory orders and were taken to different police stations, including Bawana, Narela Industrial Area and Alipur.

“We tried to convince them to go back as Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita[which prohibits assembly of five or more people] is imposed in the national capital but they were adamant,” the newspaper quoted the officer as saying.