Leh: Two Lamas battle the wind, trying to light candles at the Devachan cremation ground. Each time, gusts of wind blow their matches out. After many attempts, a wavering flame clings to life, and then, another. Only then, two other men begin piling dry logs, one on top of another, building a pyre, in silent urgency.

Later, with all preparations complete, the men finally sit, waiting for the family of Jigmet Dorjay, who was killed in Leh on 24 September, in the firing by security forces.

Ladakh is currently under a tense lockdown. Security barricades choked the roads to the cremation grounds and the homes of two men in their early 20s—Stanzin Namgyal and Jigmet Dorjay—Sunday, when their last rites took place. As media vehicles stood idle at the barricades, civilians wanting to offer con

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