Amnesty Report Alleges Indian Police Used Excessive Force Against Youth Protesters

In late July, Indian police deployed weapons designed for warfare against crowds of young people marching through Delhi and Bihar. Pellet-firing shotguns. Tear gas launchers. Grenades. Batons. Electric shock devices. An AK-type assault rifle. This is what Amnesty International documented in a report released on Monday, August 24, after its Evidence Lab verified video footage, photographs, and witness accounts from the Cockroach protests—a youth-led movement that had erupted weeks earlier over leaked medical college entrance exam papers and evolved into a broader cry against unemployment and lack of opportunity.

The police version of events differs sharply. Delhi Police claimed they used force only after the July 20 march to parliament turned violent, that anti-social elements had infiltrated the peaceful crowd, and that 240 of their own personnel were injured in clashes. They insisted they deployed "maximum restraint" and only the "minimum required force." Bihar Police, when questioned by India's Supreme Court about verified footage showing an officer firing an AK-47 rifle at protesters in Siwan on July 24, said the constable had gotten trapped in the crowd and fired four rounds into the air, injuring no one. They acknowledged the weapon was a "platoon-level" tool for special operations, not crowd control, yet maintained they had not used excessive force.

Amnesty's investigation contradicts this account entirely. The organization found no evidence that imminent threats of death or serious injury—the only legal justification under international law for deploying such weapons—existed at any point. One anonymous protester described being struck by pellets from roughly 300 to 400 meters away while running. Doctors confirmed the injuries were from pellet fire. The protester said if they had not turned to flee, the shot would have hit their face and chest. On Friday, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi accompanied a 19-year-old wounded protester to a Delhi Police station, staging a sit-in to demand an investigation. Police registered the case only after his intervention.

Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty International India's board, framed the police response as something far more deliberate than crowd control gone wrong. Authorities had first suppressed the right to protest itself through communication blackouts, barricades, and transport disruptions, he said. Then they attempted to crush the movement with unnecessary and excessive force against peaceful demonstrators, including children. "This heavy-handed response was state-sanctioned violence masked as crowd control," Patel stated. "The continued impunity after a month is a testament to that."

The Cockroach protests had already shaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in ways few movements have. The initial trigger—leaked exam papers for a highly competitive national medical entrance exam—sparked outrage among India's youth. The demonstrations forced the resignation of then-education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. What began as anger over a single exam evolved into something larger: a generational challenge to the Modi administration over education reform, job creation, and the future available to young Indians. The movement became one of the most significant challenges Modi has faced across his three terms in power.

The Supreme Court, responding to the scale of allegations, formed a high-powered inquiry committee to investigate claims of violence by both police and demonstrators. That investigation is ongoing. But a month has passed since the July protests, and Amnesty's report suggests that accountability remains elusive. The police denials continue. The weapons were deployed. The injuries were sustained. And the young people who took to the streets—some of them children—remain waiting for answers about why the state chose to meet their demands for change with force designed to kill.