Leh: “Do people ever get justice after the police kill?” 17-year-old Mepham Khasdup’s voice cuts through the air, nearly swallowed by chants of Buddhist monks upstairs, praying for his father, whose body stays wrapped in white sheets. His father’s death has left Khasdup in a state of shock, but the wailing of the women in his family drowns his sigh.

On Wednesday, 46-year-old Tsewang Tharchin stepped out of his home to join an ongoing hunger strike, called on 10 September by the Leh Apex Body, an organisation spearheading the demand for statehood as well as Sixth Schedule protection for Ladakh. By noon, he had been shot dead by security forces.

A day after two hunger strikers collapsed, Leh’s youth took to the streets on 24 September, with their protests leading to arson and violent cla

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