New Delhi: Sonam Wangchuk, the Ladakhi climate activist, educator and engineer, who has been at the forefront of the campaign for greater constitutional safeguards and statehood for Ladakh, said on Thursday (November 12) that he has been placed under house arrest at his university residence in Leh. The development follows police removing him from a protest site in Leh a day earlier, and escorting him to his residence.The police said he had been advised to remain at home under prohibitory orders imposed during the election period.The latest flashpoint between Wangchuk and the Ladakh administration is the recent announcement of elections to all eight Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDCs), for which polling has been scheduled by the state Election Commission for December 4 – the middle of winter in the region.Another separate round of local elections is due in Ladakh on November 21. This is to the municipal councils in Ladakh and Kargil and for village panchayats. The LAHDC polls are scheduled just 13 days later in Ladakh, for which 100 councillors are to be elected.Wangchuk and several local organisations oppose the timing and other aspects of these polls, saying winter migration out of Ladakh will skew the election participation and results.Local groups including Ladakh Nambardar Association, Ladakh Gompa Association and Ladakh Buddhist Association have also objected to how the proposed electoral constituencies are being drawn up and the structure of the hill councils that will follow. They want these concerns sorted out before the elections.Separately, some local bodies have called for a boycott of the panchayat and municipal elections, citing concerns over delimitation and representation.Also read: Unhappy Over Delimitation, Ladakh Bodies Give Call to Boycott Upcoming LAHDC, Panchayat PollsThe chief secretary, Ashish Kundra, announced on November 10 that out of 192 Panchayat Halqas (areas), 55 sarpanches (village heads) have been elected unopposed, while elections will be held for the remaining 137 seats. Similarly, 1186 Panch (vilalge council member) candidates have been elected unopposed out of 1428.In the Leh Municipal Council, elections will be held in all 21 wards, while four out of 17 wards in the Kargil Municipal Council have elected representatives unopposed.Wangchuk alleged in a video he released Thursday that around 20–25 armed security personnel have surrounded his house since he was brought home and that his freedom of movement was being restricted. He said the reason was that he had raised questions about the administration.He released a detailed video statement narrating the situation. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sonam Wangchuk (@wangchuksworld)“Around 8–10 people, perhaps they were policemen but they were not wearing name tags or uniforms, came wearing masks over their faces,” Wangchuk said, describing being taken away from the protest site the previous day. “They wore hoodies and they looked more like goons than police,” he said.The video he released of his “arrest” shows a man in uniform and two others with him, not in uniform, who move to take Wangchuk away from the tented protest site. The uniformed person attempts to take a video camera away from one of Wangchuk’s associates.“They brought me here to his house and since then I am under arrest inside,” he said, “There is no [chance] of going out. There are guards on every side.”The LAHDC election announcement made on November 10, 2026.Wangchuk also pointed out that the news has incorrectly been reporting that he has been “advised” to stay at home when the truth is that he is surrounded by so many police personnel that he is not free to go anywhere. “I am under house arrest,” he said. He shared photos of some of the armed men outside his residence.He said he was approaching the magistrate, the high court and would go as far as the Supreme Court to challenge his detention. “Why are they keeping someone under house arrest over trying to protest peacefully – that too without calling it an arrest?”He said the sit-in protest in Ladakh was a “success” on November 11–12 and would continue on November 13 as well, until the demands of the protesters were met.Also read: ‘They Don’t Want Dialogue, They Just Want Silence’: Ladakh’s Post-Protest RealityThe dispute between the climate activist and the government traces its origin to a September 2025 strike call, after which larger mass protests followed. Four people were killed during clashes with security forces in Leh. The protests were linked to demands for statehood and constitutional safeguards, including protection under the Sixth Schedule.The Union government subsequently ordered a judicial inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice B.S. Chauhan. The commission began proceedings in October 2025. More than a year later, Wangchuk and other local leaders are questioning why its findings have not been made public.Statehood for Ladakh, inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the constitution, greater local control over land and employment and stronger democratic and political representation are longstanding demands of Wangchuk and the Leh Apex Body as well as Kargil Democratic Alliance, which have been holding negotiations with the Union government on these issues.