Indian police torture Wangchuk’s associate in custody
Srinagar: The Leh Apex Body (LAB) has said that an associate of the incarcerated climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was tortured in custody by the Ladakh police after he refused to make a false confession.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the issue was raised by the apex body in its first meeting with the Ladakh administration after the September 24 protests during which four civilians were killed in firing by Indian forces.
The LAB also demanded a judicial probe led by a retired Supreme Court judge into the killings as a precondition for resuming talks with the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that have been stalled after the protests turned violent in Ladakh’s capital city.
LAB co-chairman Chering Dorjay Lakrook said Stanzin Yulo, a resident of the Thiksey locality on the outskirts of Leh who was reportedly working as a contractor with Wangchuk’s Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh (HIAL), was “forced into making a false confession which he refused due to which he was tortured by police”.
The HIAL is being probed by Indian investigative agencies for alleged financial irregularities, which have been denied by its co-founder and Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali Angmo.
“He has been beaten up very badly. He was asked to make some confession and false accusations, to which he didn’t agree. He has torture marks all over his body and is presently undergoing treatment at the Sonam Narboo Memorial Hospital in Leh,” Lakrook told media.
