Four Killed, BJP Office in Ladakh Vandalised as Leh Erupts in Protest; Which Outside Actor Tried to Alter Voter Rolls?

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

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Snapshot of the day

September 23, 2025

Sidharth Bhatia

Four protestors were killed, 79 injured and the headquarters of the BJP in Ladakh were vandalised even as thousands took to the streets in Leh and clashed with the police on Wednesday. Leh District Magistrate Romil Singh Donk declared a curfew. The protesters were demanding special constitutional protections for Ladakh following its demotion into a Union Territory in 2019. Ladakhi leaders have been seeking restoration of its statehood, among other things, and the government has set up a High Powered Committee (HPC). In an appeal, activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been fasting for 15 days, appealed for calm.

Less than a week after leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi alleged that wrongful additions and deletions in Karnataka’s Aland and Maharashtra’s Rajura were being facilitated in a centralised way through a software, the Election Commission of India has rolled out a new ‘e-sign’ feature on its ECINet portal and app,