Leh (Ladakh): White scarf in hand, Stanzin Thinles sat on a road blocked by spools of concertina wire in Leh city on the afternoon of September 28 and wept.Some 200 metres away, a decorated coffin of 23-year-old Stanzin Namgyal, a resident of Igoo village on the outskirts of Leh, trundled into the cremation ground near Martyrs Park in a mini truck.A cavalcade of private and passenger cars carrying a handful of Namgyal’s relatives, a bus full of paramilitary troopers, police vans and official vehicles led by a police escort followed.“I had come to pay respects to our martyr,” Thinles cried, “I didn’t know him but he laid down his life for a better future for us.”As Ladakh bids farewell to the four who were killed in the clashes of September 24, there is a growing sense of disappointment and rage among the residents whose peaceful agitation for democratic rights and constitutional safeguards is being projected as a spectacular foreign conspiracy against India by officials and some sections of the media.Director general of Ladakh police S.D. Jamwal has sought to link the deadly clashes between civilian protesters and security forces on September 24 with Pakistan and Bangladesh, saying that there was a “question mark” on the activities of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk who has emerged as the face of public agitation in the arid desert region.Also read: Two Days After His Detention Under NSA, Sonam Wangchuk’s Wife Says She Is Yet to Speak to HimContesting Jamwal claims, Stanzin Namgyal (no connection with the 23-year-old mentioned above), an army veteran from Saboo on the outskirts of Leh who fought alongside his son Tsewang Tharchin in the 1999 Kargil war said that Wangchuk unified people “to protect Ladakh from losing its identity, culture and land”.Tharchin, the father of four children who served the army from 1996 to 2017 was among the four persons killed in firing on September 24. “People of Ladakh have genuine demands and he was their face. The government should listen to people instead of branding them anti-nationals,” Namgyal said.A graffiti on the road from Leh to Pangong Lake. Photo: The Wire.Most Ladakhis have taken the foreign conspiracy theory and allegations that Wangchuk swindled funds meant for his NGO with a pinch of salt, seeing them largely as attempts to undermine their “peaceful and just struggle”.Leader of opposition and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on September 28 that Ladakh’s people, and its culture are traditions were “under attack by the BJP and RSS”, a view echoed by many Ladakhis who fear that the Union government was eyeing their resources and land.Dozens of ordinary residents – students, government employees, local hoteliers and shopkeepers – interviewed by The Wire regretted the violence that has bruised their struggle for democracy but they sounded more aghast over the use of “disproportionate” force against the protesters and the “absurd labels” used by sections of media to “defame” their peaceful agitation.On the afternoon of September 27 when officials relaxed the curfew for two hours, Jigmet Rinchen, a young undergraduate student, rushed to buy milk near the main market in Leh where some grocery stores were allowed to open.“The government speaks lies and godi media [a term used disparagingly for mainstream media which takes the BJP line] parrots these lies,” Rinchen replied, when asked about allegations of Wangchuk’s links to Pakistan, “It is a smear campaign to defame and crush our just struggle and its aim is to project that Ladakh is a national security threat so the government can do whatever it wants,” he said.ReputationWangchuk enjoys an unblemished reputation in Ladakh for his innovations, awards and ideas. What makes him widely popular is the diligence with which the climate activist marched in the high Himalayas and sat on hunger strikes to build a case for democracy and constitutional safeguards for Ladakh.A youngster showing the photo of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk he has saved on his phone. Photo: The WireThe series of hunger strikes propelled Wangchuk to the centerstage of one of the most peaceful public agitations which became one of the reasons for the Union home ministry to set up an empowered committee to look into the demands of Ladakhis after the region was separated from J&K in 2019.His agitation supplemented the efforts of Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) which came together after the reading down of Article 370 to demand Sixth Schedule and statehood for Ladakh besides exclusive rights over land and government jobs for locals.The two bodies representing social, political, trade and religious groups in Leh and Kargil joined ranks before the climate activist joined the agitation.“The coming together of LAB and KDA was the biggest political move post 2019. For a long time, both Kargil and Leh were at loggerheads. The meetings of the empowered committee linked two antagonist regions and brought them together for a common cause,” said a Ladakh-based political analyst, who requested anonymity.A united Kargil and LehSome residents believe that Wangchuk, one of the few faces in Ladakh with widespread influence and international reach, became a “thorn” for the Union government because he took their peaceful struggle to national and international platforms. The Union government made its disapproval of the Ladakh agitation clear.A young Ladakhi resident takes a ride on a bicycle as security personnel prepare to reimpose curfew in Leh city on Saturday. Photo: The WireDuring a meeting of the empowered committee in 2023, the junior home minister Nityanand Rai, who heads the committee, “didn’t sound happy” about the agitation, said Sajjad Hussain, a KDA leader who has been attending the meetings since 2023. “He told our leaders that the government shouldn’t have saved Ladakh from the rule of Kashmiris,” Hussain said.After the clashes of September 24, the securitisation and militarisation of politics in Ladakh which was confined to local issues of governance and administration when it was part of Jammu and Kashmir has left many Ladakhis in a state of flux.“Using these narratives might be helping the government to justify its highhandedness against the peaceful protesters but it will isolate the people of Ladakh. We don’t need certificates of nationalism from those who are destroying the nation,” said Rigzin Paljor (name changed), a government employee, in a veiled reference to the BJP.Thinles, a government job aspirant, said: “We are protesting against the government. We are not going against our country. We live on the border with two hostile countries. It is easy to call us extremists and anti nationals but we have given our lives for the nation”.‘Agitation isn’t going anywhere’With Wangchuk detained under the stringent National Security Act and shifted to Jodhpur jail in Rajasthan, Ladakhis, citing several global accolades that the incarcerated climate activist brought to the country with his ideas and innovations, are sad that their most prominent face is being treated like a criminal.“He is a messiah who tried to save Ladakh and is paying a price for it. But with him in jail, people are not going to stop demanding their rights. The agitation is not going anywhere,” said a hotelier in Zangsti locality of Leh who didn’t want to be named fearing reprisal from authorities.Ladakh police personnel walking past a barricade of concertina wire in Leh city which remained under curfew for sixth consecutive day. Photo: The Wire.Curfew remains in place for the sixth consecutive day in Leh on Monday with mobile internet banned and spools of concertina wires blocking the roads to prevent the locals and media from attending the cremation of the army veteran Tharchin and Rinchen Dadul who were killed in the September 24 clashes.Jigmet Dorjay, 25, the second victim, was cremated at Devachand cremation ground near Choglamsar on September 28.The funeral of Jigmet Dorjay. Photo: The Wire.Thinles had turned up at the cremation ground near Martyrs Park along with nearly half dozen young boys and girls on Sunday afternoon to lay white scarfs on the coffin of Namgyal, a mark of regard and respect for the dead among the Buddhists.However, the youngsters had to contend with a silent and distant mourning as security forces did not allow them to enter the grounds. On the road outside, dozens of uniformed personnel in riot-gear and automatic rifles rushed to stop two men who tried entering.There, two men, Norbu and Stanzin, gave only their first names because they are government employees. The latter said that the deceased Stanzin Namgyal was a friend’s relative.As the two men took heavy steps back towards their homes on the deserted road, they said that they could not help but feel a sense of alienation and anger. “We had only come to pay respects to the martyr but they (security forces) treated us as if we were criminals. If they don’t stop this, Ladakhis will lose faith in the system,” Stanzin said.