{"id":184756,"date":"2025-10-01T19:51:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=184756"},"modified":"2025-10-01T19:51:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:51:35","slug":"full-scale-witch-hunt-launched-to-break-wangchuks-spirit-says-wife-in-plea-to-indian-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2025\/10\/01\/full-scale-witch-hunt-launched-to-break-wangchuks-spirit-says-wife-in-plea-to-indian-president.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFull-scale witch hunt\u201d launched to break Wangchuk\u2019s spirit, says wife in plea to Indian president"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-184759 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/10\/Sonum-Wangchuk-780x437.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/10\/Sonum-Wangchuk-780x437.jpg 780w, https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/10\/Sonum-Wangchuk-390x220.jpg 390w, https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/10\/Sonum-Wangchuk-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/10\/Sonum-Wangchuk.jpg 786w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/>New Delhi: Gitanjali J Angmo, wife of renowned Ladakh-based environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk, has appealed to the Indian President Droupadi Murmu for the unconditional release of her husband, who is currently detained under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and lodged in the Jodhpur jail.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kashmir Media Service, in a strongly worded letter to the Indian president, Gitanjali said that a \u201cfull scale witch hunt\u201d has been launched against Wangchuk \u2014 a prominent voice from Ladakh known globally for his environmental activism and educational reforms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the past one month in particular, and for the past four years covertly, a relentless campaign has been waged to kill the spirit of my husband and all the causes he stands for and espouses\u201d, she wrote. \u201cApart from the illegal detention, the manner in which the State and its agencies are hounding us and have kept us under surveillance is deplorable\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSonam Wangchuk is a person who can never be a threat to anyone. He has dedicated his life to serve the brave sons of soil of Ladakh\u2026.\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Gitanjali, who is the founder and CEO of Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL), said her husband was not allowed to carry necessary daily medications when he was arrested, adding she has been denied any phone communication with him since his detention. \u201cI am completely unaware about my husband\u2019s condition. I am shocked and devastated,\u201d Gitanjali stated.<\/p>\n<p>She questioned whether peaceful advocacy for environmental conservation, educational reform, and tribal rights could be considered a crime. \u201cTo raise one\u2019s voice for the upliftment of a backward tribal belt, which is ecologically fragile, cannot and should not be equated with a threat to national security,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>She said that she herself was put under CRPF surveillance in Leh\u2019s Phyang village, where HIAL is located. She further revealed that students and staff of the Institute were also put under \u201ctight surveillance\u201d, while two staff members have been detained by police in the past three days without legal justification. \u201cEven the media was not allowed to enter the campus and speak to us so that the truth does not reach the world\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Gitanjali warned that such actions could have long-term implications for national unity and security. \u201cTo treat a son of Ladakh so shabbily is not just a sin \u2014 it is a strategic error in building strong borders based on solidarity and peaceful coexistence,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: Gitanjali J Angmo, wife of renowned Ladakh-based environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk, has appealed to the Indian President Droupadi Murmu for the unconditional release of her husband, who is currently detained under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and lodged in the Jodhpur jail. According to Kashmir Media Service, in a strongly worded letter to &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":184759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-ladakh-indian-occupied-jammu-and-kashmir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/10\/Sonum-Wangchuk.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184756"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184761,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184756\/revisions\/184761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}