Leh (Ladakh): Standing outside the emergency ward of Sonam Narboo Memorial hospital, Padma Dolkes is outraged by the circumstances under which her brother Sonam Chosphel, who is on medication for back and knee problems, was arrested by the Ladakh police.As the capital city of Leh seethed with rage on Wednesday (September 24), Dolkes said that her brother and only sibling was rushing home when a team of Central Reserve Paramilitary Forces (CRPF) nabbed him, ordered him to lie hand down on the ground and allegedly beat him up.“His hands got dirty as he tried to avoid the beating. They later checked his hands and claimed that he was involved in stone pelting,” said Dolkes, a resident of Leh, adding that she got a call from the hospital on Thursday (September 25) that her brother had been admitted in the emergency ward after losing consciousness.Chosphel, who runs a travel agency, is among nearly 50 people who have been held by Ladakh police in connection with the violence that swept across the Leh city after police and protesters seeking special constitutional protections under sixth schedule and statehood clashed on Wednesday.“They aren’t even giving him his medicines,” Dolkes said, “Murderers and rapists are roaming freely in the country. If anything happens to him, who will be responsible?”The crackdown by police and paramilitary troopers on alleged protesters has prompted outrage with civil society, activists and political leaders warning that the use of arbitrary measures to curb and “defame” a peaceful agitation could further deteriorate the situation in Ladakh which remained under curfew for fifth day on Sunday.“Many innocent people without any role in the protests were picked up from the roads and nabbed by police. They (police) will have to answer in the court. These arbitrary measures are not going to help. Instead, it will deteriorate the situation further,” Mohammad Shafi Lassu, president of Ladakh Bar Association, said.The arrests have sparked panic and fear in Leh where many political leaders and civil society activists have either surrendered or are languishing behind bars on the charges of stoking or participating in the widespread violence in which at least four civilian protesters were killed in firing by police and paramilitary forces.On Saturday (September 27) evening, two councillors of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council – identified as Smanla Dorje Nurbo and Phutsog Stanzin Tsepak – who have been named in an FIR by Ladakh police surrendered along with vice president of Ladakh Buddhist Association Savin Rigzin and village numberdar Rigzin Dorjey.Lassu said that some arrested activists have refused to apply for bail to express solidarity with those who have been jailed for allegedly participating in the violence. There are rumours in Leh that the people involved in the peaceful agitation seeking statehood and sixth schedule could embark in a ‘Jail bharo andolan’ (fill the jails movement) if the police don’t stop the crackdown against innocents.Rigzen Chosgayal, a driver, said that his brother Sonam Rinchen, an artist, was returning home after donating blood for the injured at the SNM hospital when he was nabbed by the CRPF troopers and badly beaten up.“He had gone to do a good deed. What was his fault? The guilty should be punished as per law but they have picked random people from the roads and put them behind bars. If this continues, there will be another flare-up,” said Chosgayal.“They are torturing people who are demanding their rights. They want to crush us,” a woman standing behind Chosgayal at the hospital said. She refused to be named, saying that her husband was among those arrested by Ladakh police.Lobzang Rinchen, who runs The Druk Ladakh hotel in Leh city, said that police and paramilitary troopers barged into his property on Wednesday night looking for his nephew, Phuntsog Stanzin Tsepag, who is Congress councillor for Upper Leh Ward.In a post on X (formerly Twitter), BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya had blamed Tsepag for instigating the mob that torched the party’s Ladakh office, a claim which has not been verified by the Ladakh police so far.‘Officers warned me that a chartered plane carrying BJP workers will come to Ladakh and burn down my hotel’“We told them that there were only foreigners in the hotel and it wouldn’t be right to check the rooms at this hour as it would tarnish the country’s image. Later I was summoned to the police station at night where the officers warned me that a chartered plane carrying BJP workers will come to Ladakh and burn down my hotel and my home,” he told The Wire.Rinchen who is recuperating at the SNM hospital added: “I felt as if I was in a BJP office and not the police station. Later they beat me up badly and let me go”.Outside the hospital, several anguished families turned up on Saturday seeking the whereabouts of their loved ones who have been rounded up by police in the aftermath of the protests in which at least 120 people, including 35 security personnel were injured.At least two buildings were set on fire by the protesters while several government offices were also damaged in stone pelting and arson.Dolkes said that she had heard rumours that her brother was brought to the hospital in the morning for treatment. “I have not told my mother about his arrest. She will die if she comes to know that he is in jail. He didn’t do anything wrong. If they are not going to release him, at least let me meet him,” she said.