A Leh court has granted interim bail to 26 Ladakh statehood agitators, arrested during the crackdown that followed last week’s violence, sources said.

The government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the violence, which falls well short of the protesters’ demands for a judicial probe and the release of Sonam Wangchuk, celebrated activist and the face of the agitation.

Leh Bar Association president Mohammad Shafi Lassu said that those granted bail included 23 local people, two Biharis and a Nepali labourer.

“The Nepali man is yet to be released,” Lassu told The Telegraph, adding that the protest leaders would find “somebody” who can sign the “surety bond”.

“Possibly, it will happen tomorrow,” he said.

Some reports suggested the detainees had been released as a goodwill gesture by the government, but Lassu asserted that they had been freed on the court’s orders.

Ladakhi leaders and families gathered to receive the freed detainees as they walked out of the Leh district jail in the morning. They were each welcomed with a khata, a ceremonial white scarf, local sources said.

Lassu said those released were among the 39 people arrested on the day of the violence, September 24. Many other Ladakhi leaders and activists later surrendered before the police. Their bail pleas are before the court, he said.

“Around 40 men are still under arrest,” he said.

He said the next hearing for the 26 released detainees and those still in custody will be held on October 4.

The release of the Nepali “labourer” is being seen as a rebuff to the claim by the government and the Right-wing ecosystem that outsiders had incited the trouble.

Officers said the police were on the lookout for people evading arrest.

While life is returning to normalcy, mobile Internet services remained suspended in Leh for the ninth consecutive day.

IAS officer Mukul Beniwal, the sub-divisional magistrate of Nubra, has been designated as the inquiry officer for the magisterial probe, ordered by the Ladakh administration on Thursday.

The inquiry will examine the circumstances that led to the unrest and the police firing that allegedly killed four people.

Beniwal has asked people with any information, oral or written, or material evidence such as photos or videos related to the violence, to come forward.

Ladakhi leaders have adopted a resolution seeking a judicial inquiry into the firing by the CRPF and the police, and the release of all those arrested, including Wangchuk.

The Ladakh Buddhist Association and the All Ladakh Gonpa Association held a joint prayer in Leh in honour of the four slain men. They also paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his birth anniversary.

The resolution said the arrests had been made on “flimsy grounds” and warned that the government must desist from further “harassment” and “witch-hunting” if normalcy was to return.

Ladakh Buddhist Association president Chering Dorjay said the legal adviser to the organisation, Haji Ghulam Mustafa, had been granted permission to meet Wangchuk.

He said Mustafa had left for Delhi on his way to Rajasthan, where Wangchuk has been lodged since his detention under the National Security Act on September 26.

He said some members of Wangchuk’s family had been allowed to meet him.

Dorjay is co-chairman of the Leh Apex Body which is agitating, along with the Kargil Democratic Alliance, for statehood and safeguards for Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

The two bodies have withdrawn from the talks with the Centre and set several conditions for the resumption of the dialogue, including a judicial inquiry and the release of all those arrested.