Srinagar: A large crowd gathered outside the district jail in Leh on Saturday to welcome the release of former Congress councilor Samla Dorje Narbu (36) and former Congress Jammu and Kashmir MLA Deldon Namgel (47) after they were granted bail by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.Police arrested Namgail on September 26, 2025, and Narboo a day later, following violent protests in Leh on September 24, in which four people were killed and around 80 others were injured in police firing against protesters demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh. The police had accused both of them of inciting violence and being present at the incident site, but both of them denied the allegations. With his release, all those arrested in the September 24 violence have been released on bail.Police said 38 policemen and 57 CRPF personnel were also injured in the violence. Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), two influential political and religious groups in Leh and Kargil, were demanding his release. LAB co-chairman Charing Dorji, who was outside the prison and greeted the two, said he was happy that the two had been released after being jailed for so long without anything.The HC on Thursday granted bail to the accused citing the Supreme Court judgment that the power to grant bail should be exercised compassionately. “The heinousness of the offense in itself cannot be a ground for denying the benefit of bail, if there are other weighty circumstances justifying the grant of bail,” the HC had said, adding that the state’s concerns can be addressed by imposing appropriate conditions. The court also said that “in the case of non-bailable offenses which do not entail punishment of death or life imprisonment, bail is a rule”.The court directed the accused to furnish a bond of Rs 1 lakh each to the satisfaction of the trial court and the jail superintendent. It imposed several conditions, including that the petitioners must cooperate with the investigating agency, participate in the trial proceedings unless exempted, refrain from influencing witnesses, must not commit any further crimes and must not leave India without the prior permission of the trial court and the investigating officer.In his application, Narbu said he was taking care of people on hunger strike at a hospital on September 24 who had fallen ill and was not present near the site of the incident. Environmentalist and LAB member Sonam Wangchuk had called for a hunger strike to pressure the Center to grant Sixth Schedule status to Ladakh. They closed it down after the September 24 violence.However, Namgel, in his application, said that the people of the area are raising their demands within the ambit of the Constitution and peaceful protest is a fundamental right. Their application stated that “the demands made by the people were completely patriotic in their reach as well as their expressions”. Although, he said, he was implicated in the case, he said he believed in non-violence.The state had opposed bail, saying both men were influential political figures who could abuse their positions. It alleged that Narbu and Namgal were present at the scene, were “active participants” and “key players” in the violence.Following the reorganization of the erstwhile state, Ladakh was carved out of Jammu and Kashmir and made a union territory on October 31, 2019. The region includes Muslim-majority Kargil and predominantly Buddhist Leh.Both districts are governed by elected autonomous councils handling local administration, while overall governance rests with a centrally appointed LG, without a Legislative Assembly – a structure that has prompted demands for full statehood and constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.