New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “betraying” the people of Ladakh and called for an impartial judicial inquiry into the deaths of four protesters in police firing in the union territory.
Among those killed was Kargil war veteran Tsewang Tharchin, whose father also served in the Indian Army. Gandhi, currently on a four-nation tour of South America, posted a video on X showing Tharchin’s father and wrote, “Father in the army, son in the army — patriotism runs in their blood. Yet the BJP government shot and killed this brave son of the nation simply because he stood up for Ladakh and his rights.”
“The father’s pain-filled eyes ask one question: is this the reward for serving the nation today?” Gandhi added in his post in Hindi.
He demanded an impartial judicial inquiry into the killings and called for the perpetrators to be punished severely. “(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji, you have betrayed the people of Ladakh. They are demanding their rights. Communicate with them — stop the politics of violence and fear,” the former Congress president said.
The Congress had earlier condemned the killing of Tharchin, highlighting his distinguished service at the Siachen Glacier and during the 1999 Kargil War. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Tharchin’s death, along with three others, during a peaceful protest for Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh, was “a matter of the deepest anguish and outrage.”
The incident occurred on September 24, when a protest demanding statehood for Ladakh turned violent. Security forces fired on the demonstrators, killing four and injuring scores, while protesters set fire to a local BJP office and allegedly pelted police and CRPF personnel with stones.
On September 26, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was detained under the National Security Act and lodged in Jodhpur jail in Rajasthan.
With PTI inputs