New Delhi: ‘Who gave the order to hit students?’A day after education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned under public pressure, following a nationwide movement for his exit in the back of multiple paper leaks, leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has tweeted a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah demanding accountability and asking the above quoted question.The Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force are directly under Shah’s Ministry of Home Affairs.“I write to demand accountability for the barbaric assault on students who were peacefully protesting in Delhi on July 20, 2026,” Gandhi wrote.Police and security forces had, on that day, opened brutal lathicharge against peaceful protesters, hit them physically without provocation, fired tear gas and even pellet guns at them, and attacked them with nail-studded batons.“Our students were demanding a fair and accountable education system. Instead of being heard, security forces assaulted them with indiscriminate force, including lethal weapons and tear gas. Hundreds have suffered serious injuries. Women students have been assaulted by policemen, including by deliberately targeting their private parts,” Gandhi highlighted in his letter.Gandhi also reiterated the outrageousness of the use of pellet guns.“Most shocking has been the use of lethal pellet guns. Reports in the media and social media clearly show people who have suffered grave injuries, including a journalist. I met 19-year old student Sahil Lochab, who is now in severe pain is likely to lose an eye because he was shot with pellet guns,” he said.Also read: 12 Questions About Police Brutality on Students in Delhi Amit Shah Must AnswerThe Delhi Police has denied the use of pellet guns on protesters but as The Wire‘s and others‘ reporting shows, multiple victims show injuries commensurate with those perpetrated by pellet guns.On July 24, Rahul Gandhi did a press conference with the 19-year-old who had sustained pellet gun injuries.The Wire has reported on how a video shot over the underground Palika Bazaar in Connaught Place shows a Rapid Action Force (RAF) jawan firing what appears to be a pellet gun at the abdomen of another victim, Shaikh Irshad Mansoori.CRPF director general Gyanendra Pratap Singh said a day ago that it would conduct a professional post-analysis of the RAF’s actions. In the first official statement from the paramilitary force in the wake of the reports of pellet gun use against protestors, Singh told Times of India, “Now, since agitation has been called off, and once assembled people disperse, we would make a professional post-event assessment, like we do after every major assignment, and then let you know of the view of force headquarters.”“Security forces deployed in Delhi answer ultimately to you, so I ask: As Home Minister, did you approve the use of lethal force including pellet guns against students? If not, who did? Are the people in plain clothes seen beating students with lathis police personnel or volunteers? Who authorized their deployment?” asked Gandhi in his letter.Gandhi wrote that peaceful protest is crucial to any democracy. “It is the government’s responsibility to protect protestors and resolve their grievances through dialogue. Such brutal violence destroys every norm, and has outraged the country. Youth and students, the future of our country,” he added.