Trying to understand students deaths and protests in India

NPR | By Diaa Hadid

Published July 31, 2026 at 4:28 PM EDT

Anti-government protests in India were partly triggered by students who died by suicide after they were ordered to retest for a medical exam. Why?

Diaa Hadid

Diaa Hadid chiefly covers Pakistan and Afghanistan for NPR News. She is based in NPR's bureau in Islamabad. There, Hadid and her team were awarded a Murrow in 2019 for hard news for their story on why abortion rates in Pakistan are among the highest in the world.

See stories by Diaa Hadid

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