In a strongly worded letter to local authorities, the Zanskar Buddhist Association (ZBA) of Ladakh has raised alarms over the alleged abduction and forced religious conversion of a young Buddhist woman from the region, calling it a part of a broader pattern of love jihad. The association has urged for immediate intervention to rescue the woman and the enactment of stringent anti-conversion laws in the Union Territory of Ladakh to protect communal harmony.
The letter, dated January 15, 2026, and addressed to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Zanskar Sub-Division, details the case of Stanzin Yangdol, a Buddhist girl from Zanskar who has been missing for several days. According to the ZBA, her parents informed the association that exhaustive searches and inquiries with friends and relatives have yielded no leads, leading them to suspect she has been kidnapped by unknown individuals intent on wrongfully confining her against her will.
The organisation wrote, “We write this letter to respectfully draw your attention to a matter of serious public concern involving the alleged misuse of marriage as a means to fraudulently convert girls belonging to the Buddhist community into another religion. There are strong and reasonable grounds to believe that, in multiple instances, marriages are being preceded or accompanied by religious conversion of Buddhist girls, not by their free, voluntary, and informed consent, but through deception, coercion, inducement, or misrepresentation.”
They further stated, “We have strong reason to believe that these incidents appear to follow a consistent and pre-planned pattern, giving rise to a reasonable apprehension of an organized conspiracy aimed at altering the religious identity of girls from a particular community”. ZBA accuses perpetrators of luring girls with systematic misinformation, manipulating their perceptions of reality, and exploiting vulnerabilities through psychological tactics, rendering victims unable to escape or contact their families.
Now it is the Ladakh Buddhist Association which brings up grooming and conversion of their girls stating that these incidents have a “consistent and pre-planned pattern”. They clearly call it “love-jihad” and demand anti-love jihad & anti conversion law in the Union Territory of… pic.twitter.com/JZqNgYVHEn
— Manu Khajuria (@KhajuriaManu) January 15, 2026
Zanskar Buddhist Association said that if such marriages of Buddhist girls with Muslim men were genuinely based on mutual consent and do not involve any religious pressure, they can be solemnised under the Special Marriage Act. The organisation noted that in all such cases, the religion of the girl is only changed, and the men never change the religion. “This one-sided and repetitive pattern raises serious concerns regarding the voluntariness, legality, and bona fides of such conversions. The gravity and sensitivity of the issue therefore warrant immediate attention and impartial scrutiny by the competent authorities,” the letter states.
The association urges authorities and Muslim community leaders and others to sensitise Muslims to refrain from practicing love jihad, saying that it could lead to communal unrest. It warns that young women from the Buddhist community are being continuously lured into marriage for the purpose of religious conversion, potentially disturbing the region’s communal harmony.
In addition to demanding the safe return of Stanzin Yangdol to her family, the ZBA called for penalizing forcible or fraudulent religious conversions through marriage or allurement. It has also specifically requested the enactment of a stringent “Anti-Conversion Law or Anti-Love Jihad Law” in Ladakh UT, arguing that such measures would help maintain peace.
The letter also asks for the immediate registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against the accused under sections 138, 127, 318, 69, 87, and other relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.”We strictly request you to take immediate steps to restore the girl to the family and arrange for bringing her back to the Buddhist community before this protest takes an ugly turn,” the letter warns, adding a plea to stop any forcible conversion by anti-social elements through stringent laws.
Signed by ZBA President Tsering Dorjay, copies of the letter were sent to high-ranking officials, including the Lt. Governor of Ladakh, the Administration of UT Ladakh.
