After being thwarted by the local administration earlier, ‘Pashmina March’ will now take place on April 17. This was announced by Ladakh educationist and innovator Sonam Wangchuk.
The Leh Apex Body (LAB) will start a five-day foot march to Skang Chu-Thang near the Himachal Pradesh border to meet the shepherds who are reportedly losing their pasture land to major industrial projects, Wangchuk said.
In a video message, Wangchuk said there will be around 20 people who will take part in the march against 10,000 people proposed earlier for the march, which was planned for Changthang along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.
The LAB, along with the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), is spearheading an agitation for the past four years to demand statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
The LAB had earlier called for Pashmina March on April 7 to highlight the plight of farmers, who are allegedly losing prime pasture land to huge industrial plants to the south and “Chinese encroachments” to the north. However, the call for the march was withdrawn after authorities imposed prohibitory orders and curtailed the speed of the internet to 2G.
Wangchuk said, “Ladakh is a very sensitive place surrounded by borders and we can understand that our announcement of 10,000 people moving to the border might have caused concern to the government over disturbance of peace”.
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