• Protesters torch police vehicle, Bharatiya Janata Party offices.
• Protests organised in solidarity with activist Sonam Wangchuk.
• Modi government split Ladakh off from IIOJK in 2019.

Indian police patrolled the northern city of Leh on Thursday, a day after protests demanding greater autonomy for the Himalayan territory of occupied Ladakh turned deadly when security forces opened fire.

At least five people were killed and about 100 wounded, including 30 police officers.

The city — usually bustling with tourists — appeared deserted, with most main roads blocked by coils of razor wire and guarded by police in riot gear, an AFP reporter said.

A doctor at Leh’s SNM Hospital said they had treated about 100 injured people since Wednesday, some of them police.

“We have operated upon six injured people, three of them had bullet injuries and others internal bleeding in the chest and broken ribs,” said the doctor, who asked not to be identified.

Protests erupted on Wednesday, with crowds demanding greater autonomy in the sparsely populated, high-altitude desert region that is home to some 300,000 people and which borders China and Pakistan.

India’s Ministry of Home Affairs said that an “unruly mob” had attacked police, reporting in a statement issued late on Wednesday that “more than 30” officers were injured.

Protesters torched a police vehicle and the offices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while officers fired tear gas and used batons to disperse crowds.

“In self-defence, police had to resort to firing, in which unfortunately some casualties are reported,” the statement said. It did not give any details about deaths.

However, a police officer told AFP that “five deaths were reported after the protests”. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to journalists.

Thinley, 33, who runs an automobile spare parts shop in Leh, was shot in the leg.

“We are exhausted by the government by not listening to our demands”, Thinley, who gave only one name, told AFP from his hospital bed.

Jigmet Stanzin, 23, said he was injured when he tried to throw back what he thought was a tear gas canister.

“It exploded and shattered my hand,” he said.

‘Betrayed and angry’

A police unit guarded the vandalised BJP office on Thursday, alongside the wreckage of a burned security vehicle.

Paras Pandey, 27, an Indian tourist, walked alone along the highway out of Leh with a heavy backpack, looking for a ride out.

“Everything is shut. I couldn’t get food since yesterday,” Paras said. “All I could see yesterday was chaos, smoke, and broken vehicles.”

Around half of Ladakh’s residents are Muslim and about 40% are Buddhist.

It is classed as a “Union Territory” — meaning it elects lawmakers to India’s parliament but is governed directly by New Delhi.

Wednesday’s demonstrations were organised in solidarity with prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on hunger strike demanding either full federal statehood for Ladakh or constitutional protections for its tribal communities, land and fragile environment.

New Delhi said the protests were “instigated by his provocative speeches” and pointed out that efforts were continuing to discuss its governance.

Modi’s government split Ladakh off from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, imposing direct rule on both.

New Delhi has yet to fulfil its promise to include Ladakh in the “Sixth Schedule” of India’s constitution, which allows people to make their own laws and policies.

Omar Abdullah, chief minister of IIOJK, said people in Ladakh felt “betrayed and angry”.

India’s army maintains a large presence in occupied Ladakh, which includes disputed border areas with China. Troops from the two countries clashed there in 2020, killing at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.

• Warmest ties in years between NATO nations with biggest armies.
• Turkish leader hopes to overcome sanctions for F-35s.
• Trump and Erdogan aligned on Syria — but not Israel.

WASHINGTON/ANKARA: US President Donald Trump will host President Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Thursday, where the Turkish leader hopes to leverage the countries’ warmest bilateral ties in years to convince Washington to drop US sanctions and allow it to purchase F-35 fighter jets.

Erdogan’s first visit to the White House in about six years comes at a time when Ankara is keen to take advantage of a US administration eager to make deals in return for big-ticket arms and trade agreements.

The administration of former president Joe Biden kept Turkey at arm’s length partly over what it saw as the fellow NATO member’s close ties with Russia. Under Trump, who views Moscow more favourably and has closer personal ties with Erdogan, Ankara is hoping for a better relationship.

Trump and Erdogan had a checkered relationship during the Republican president’s first term. But since his return to the White House, their interests have aligned on Syria — source of the biggest bilateral strain in the past — where the US and Turkey now both strongly back the central government.

They remain sharply at odds over US ally Israel’s attacks on Gaza, which Ankara calls a genocide — a potential wild card in what are otherwise expected to be friendly and transactional talks in the Oval Office.

In his UN address on Tuesday, Erdogan, who has led Turkey for 22 years, said that “anyone who fails to speak out and take a stand against the barbarity in Gaza shares responsibility for this atrocity”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio later told Fox News that world leaders, including Erdogan, could “say what they want to say, but at the end of the day, when they want something done, they want to come to the White House”.

US sanctions block F-35 sales

The mood shift has renewed Turkish hopes that Trump and Erdogan, who have exchanged mutual praise, can find a way around US sanctions imposed by Trump himself in 2020 over Turkey’s acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defences.

That, in turn, could pave the way for Ankara to buy Lockheed Martin’s advanced F-35 fighter jets, for which it was both a buyer and manufacturer until it was barred over the S-400s.

“Despite expected resistance from US Congress, a green light for Turkish acquisition of F-35s is not inconceivable, provided the political will is there on both sides and diplomats are allowed to hammer out a framework that addresses all the known issues,” said Timur Soylemez, a former Turkish ambassador with experience in Turkey-US relations.

Trump said ahead of the meeting he expected F-35 talks “to conclude positively”.

Erdogan has said the defence industry, including the topic of F-35s and ongoing negotiations over 40 F-16 jets Ankara also wants, would be a focus of the meeting, along with regional wars, energy and trade.

A US official said Washington had in recent days drafted a statement of intent — a document used to facilitate talks — for several sales to Turkey, including the new F-16s that would bolster its existing fleet.

Turkey asked for advanced equipment and modifications on the F-16s in their order, making the jets cost more than a standard F-35, the official said. But F-35s were omitted from the draft statement because the US cannot legally sell them while Turkey has the S-400s, the person added.

Turkish government officials did not immediately comment on the F-16 costs.

Deal on Boeing planes also on agenda

Turkey, NATO’s second-largest army, wants to ramp up air power to counter what it sees as growing threats in the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, where it neighbours Russia and Ukraine.

In addition to the F-16s and F-35s, it also wants to procure 40 Eurofighter Typhoons — irking regional US allies Israel and Greece.

At the meeting, Trump is expected to highlight a Turkish agreement to buy more than 200 Boeing aircraft, for which Turkish Airlines is negotiating. The US official told Reuters the talks included 787 and 737 jetliners, and about $10 billion in GE aircraft engines.

COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s Aalborg airport, used for commercial and military flights, was closed due to drones in its airspace, police said early on Thursday, two days after the country’s main Copenhagen airport was shut over drone sightings that raised European security concerns.

Danish national police said the drones followed a similar pattern to the ones that had halted flights at Copenhagen airport for four hours a few days earlier. Local police later said the drones had left the Aalborg area after about three hours.

Denmark said on Tuesday the incident at Copenhagen airport was the most serious attack yet on its critical infrastructure and linked it to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe.

The closure of Aalborg airport also affected Denmark’s armed forces because it is used as a military base, police added. The Danish armed forces said they were assisting local and national police with the investigation, but declined to comment further.

Authorities in Norway also shut the airspace at Oslo airport for three hours on Monday evening after a drone was seen.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that the drones that halted flights at Copenhagen airport were part of a “pattern of persistent contestation at our borders.”

Suspicions of Russian involvement in the Copenhagen airport incident were unfounded, Russia’s ambassador to Denmark said on Tuesday.

Norwegian and Danish authorities are in close contact over the Copenhagen and Oslo incidents on Monday, but their investigation has not yet established a connection, Norway’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

More than one drone

Northern Jutland police told reporters “more than one drone” had been sighted near Aalborg airport and they were flying with lights on.

The drones were first seen at about 9:44 pm (1944 GMT) on Wednesday, according to police, and remained in the airspace until 12:54 am on Thursday.

Eurocontrol, which oversees European air traffic control, had earlier said arrivals and departures at Aalborg airport would be at a “zero rate” until 0400 GMT on Thursday due to drone activity in the vicinity.

The first flight from Aalborg on Thursday is scheduled at 0420 GMT, the airport’s website showed.

Northern Jutland police said they could not specify the type of drones or whether they were the same as the ones flying over Copenhagen airport on Monday.

“It is too early to say what the goal of the drones is and who is the actor behind,” a police official said.

Northern Jutland police later said that efforts to take down the drones had been unsuccessful and the drone operators had yet to be apprehended.

Southern Jutland police said in a post on X that drones had also been observed near the airports in the Danish towns of Esbjerg, Sonderborg and Skrydstrup.

Fighter Wing Skrydstrup in Southern Jutland is the base for Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.

National police commissioner Thorkild Fogde said many people around the country had reported drone sightings to the police since Monday.

“Of course, many of these reports do not cover activities that are of interest to the police or the military, but some of them do, and I think the one in Aalborg does,” he said.

Police said they were investigating further on site and cooperating with the national intelligence service and the armed forces, as well as authorities in other countries.

There is no danger to passengers at Aalborg airport or residents in the area, police said.

They added that three flights had been diverted to other airports.