Protester undergoes surgery, returns home after July 20 clash injuries

A protester injured during the July 20 'Sansad Chalo' march was discharged after surgery removed pellets from his face and neck. The incident comes amid continuing controversy over alleged pellet gun use, which Delhi Police has denied, as several injured protesters remain under treatment

New Delhi: Four days after surgeons removed pellets lodged in his face and neck, Sheikh Irshad Mansoori stepped out of Lady Hardinge Hospital on Friday, still bearing the physical scars of the July 20 protest.

His left eye was still bloodshot. Small black scabs dotted his forehead, cheeks and nose where the wounds had begun to heal. The 25-year-old walked slowly — dressed in a white shirt over blue-checked hospital trousers — shielding his face from the afternoon sun as he went home to Gurugram, where he had lived since 2022 while working as an accounts manager with a private firm.

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Mansoori, originally from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, studied science, completing a BSc and later an MBA before moving to the National Capital Region (NCR) for work. Inside the hospital, access to the special ward where he had been admitted remained restricted through most of his stay, so too was his story.

He recalled what unfolded later that day at the CJP (Cockroach Janta Party’s) “Sansad Chalo” march in Central Delhi when clashes broke out after police stopped demonstrators heading towards Parliament.

“I had just reached the Inner Circle when police started pushing everyone back. We all raised our hands and kept telling them, ‘Sir, please stop. We are not terrorists. We are only protesting’,” Mansoori said, adding that while standing with his hands raised, something suddenly hit his face.

“It struck my left eyebrow and shattered into several pieces. Fragments entered different parts of my face. Another piece hit my chin,” he said.

Fellow protesters rushed him to Lady Hardinge Hospital, where doctors first stopped the bleeding before carrying out scans. Mansoori said doctors told him that three pellets had lodged dangerously close to vital structures: One near a major nerve and blood vessel in his neck, another close to the muscle controlling movement of his left eye, and a third inside the facial cavity near his nose.

“They advised immediate surgery,” he said. The operation was carried out the following day after he was stabilised overnight. “The pellets were removed from my face and neck. I still have stitches on my neck, inside my eye and inside my mouth. I can see properly now, although my eye is still red because of the surgery,” he said.

The Delhi Police denied that its personnel used pellet guns against protesters during the march. The CRPF, whose Rapid Action Force was also on the streets that day, did not respond to questions about the alleged use of pellet guns.

A pellet gun fires cartridges loaded with up to 600 metal or rubber pellets, which disperse widely at speeds of 1,000 feet per second. The SOP requires firing the gun from a minimum distance of 500 feet. Always target the muzzle of the gun below the waist.

Mansoori is not the only protester to suffer serious injuries during the demonstrations. With him is 10-year-old Sahil Lochab, a resident of Najafgarh, who was hit by a pellet in his right eye during the protest, suffering injuries to his face, neck, chest, shoulder and arm. He was initially taken to Lady Hardinge Medical College before being shifted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre.

The pellet caused a full-thickness perforation of his cornea, leaving him unable to see from that eye. He has undergone one surgery and will likely require another. At Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, 21-year-old Sakshi, who suffered critical injuries in a stampede-like situation near Jantar Mantar and Tolstoy Marg, has been taken off ventilator support.

The march was part of the ongoing agitation launched by the CJP on June 20 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. The CJP is demanding accountability over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations, reforms in the education system and the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.