India's government used lethal weapons against youth-led protesters, including pellet-firing shotguns, tear gas grenades, batons and electric shock devices, according to a new report by Amnesty International. The rights organisation said witness testimony and verified visual evidence confirmed the use of these weapons in the capital, New Delhi, and in Bihar, an eastern state bordering Nepal — and identified two instances in Bihar's Siwan district where a police officer "unlawfully used lethal force against a crowd," though no fatalities were recorded. The Modi government has denied using excessive force.

The protests, which erupted in mid-July 2026, were initially triggered by the leak of India's national medical entrance examination, a high-stakes test that determines admission to the country's medical colleges. Thousands of demonstrators attempted to march on parliament in New Delhi on 20 July, at which point the demonstrations turned violent. The unrest ultimately forced the education minister to resign. Led in part by an online movement called the Cockroach Janta Party, the protests broadened into a wider challenge over youth unemployment, limited opportunities for young people, and what critics characterise as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's increasingly authoritarian style of governance. The movement represented one of the most significant tests Modi has faced since winning a third consecutive term in 2024.

Amnesty's findings directly contradict the account given by Delhi Police, who told India's Supreme Court last week that force was deployed only after protesters "resorted to violence," and that anti-social elements "masquerading as aggrieved students" had inflicted serious injuries on security forces. Amnesty acknowledged "isolated incidents of protesters throwing stones" but concluded that the "heavy-handed response was state-sanctioned violence masked as crowd control," saying the weapons were deployed in ways that breached both international standards and India's own domestic policing guidelines.

The Supreme Court has since appointed an independent panel to investigate violence by both police and demonstrators, a move that signals institutional recognition of the gravity of the allegations. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has also waded into the controversy, staging a sit-in outside a Delhi police station alongside a 19-year-old who says he was wounded by pellets during the July protests. Police subsequently registered a formal case following his complaint. With a court-appointed inquiry now under way and international scrutiny intensifying, the Indian government faces growing pressure to provide a transparent account of how security forces responded to the largest protest movement of Modi's current term.