Among Leh victims, 20-year-old who grew up in shelter home

Despite these struggles of life, Rinchen eventually passed Class 12 and hoped to make a better life.

Written by Deeptiman Tiwary

Leh | Updated: September 29, 2025 05:39 AM IST

3 min read

Among Leh victims, 20-yr-old who grew up in shelter home

A woman mourns as the body of 24-yr-old Stanzin Namgyal, who was killed during protests, is taken for the last rites. (PTI)

Rinchen Dadul was five years old when his father, a mason in Hanu Aryan, a village about 190 km away from Leh, died of illness. With his mother being disabled and his elder brother, a sepoy with the Ladakh Scouts of the Indian Army not earning enough to support three sisters, two brothers and his own family, Rinchen was sent to Leh’s Bal Ashram, a shelter home.

Despite these struggles of life, Rinchen eventually passed Class 12 and hoped to make a better life. On September 24, his hopes were dashed by a bullet piercing through his forehead when police opened fire at a marauding mob in Leh. Rinchen was all of 20.

Read | How decades of agitation gave Ladakh UT status, before statehood demand surfaced

“He was working for a travel agency in the city. I do not know what he was doing at the protest site. He might have been watching all that was going on,” says Rinchen’s brother Rigzen Dorjey, who retired from Ladakh Scouts in 2019. At his home at Agling near Leh Airport, prayers are being held for the departed soul as people sit around his dead body. All lament the nature of Rinchen’s death.

Security forces block a Leh road with razor wire amid curfew on Sunday. (PTI)

“This should not have happened. There was no need to shoot. They should have used tear gas and batons, fired in the air. There is an SoP that if bullets are to be fired, they should be fired at below waist. But he was shot dead. The bullet has hit him between the eyes,” Dorjey said.

Read | We used to curse Article 370 … But it protected us … now Ladakh opened up for entire India: Leh apex body co-chairman

He laments not having been in a position to take better care of his brother. “He was a nice boy. But I was young when first my grandparents and then my father passed away. I had my own family and the responsibility of a disabled mother, three sisters and two brothers. Poor Rinchen had to go to Bal Ashram,” said Dorjey. On the issue of Sixth Schedule and statehood demand that led to the violent protests on September 24, Dorjey said he had no opinion as he was consumed by grief.

Read | Kargil war veteran killed in protests, father asks: Is this how we treat patriots

Meanwhile, the bodies of two of the four killed in the September 24 violence in Leh were cremated on Sunday amid tight security. Stanzin Namgyal, 23, of Igoo village (45 km from Leh) and Jigmet Dorjey, 25, of Kharnak village (170 km from Leh) lived in the Choglamsar area on the outskirts of Leh city. Sources said both worked in the tourism sector in Leh city and were friends. Before the funeral processions of the two started, police clamped down restrictions on movement of vehicles and people.

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