The 11-year-old boy set out for a stroll with a friend in the main city of the disputed region of Kashmir. It was a sunny spring day, and quiet, during a general strike and after anti-India protests and clashes had subsided with no injuries reported.
But Wednesday’s walk quickly became traumatic, Mir Mehran recounted, as he and his friend were stopped by Indian paramilitary soldiers who mocked them and questioned why they were out walking and then punished the boys in the street.
“They asked us to hold our earlobes and do sit-ups for 10 times. As we were doing so, they laughed at us,” Mehran said after photographs began circulating and sparked outrage among local Kashmiris.
The other boy quickly did the sit-ups and then ran away, but Mir said he was too terrified and waited until the soldiers allowed him to go. He said that later that evening, “I was thinking they could have killed me or done something else. I was scared.”
Seeing Kashmiri residents doing callisthenics on the side of the road was common in the 1990s, as government forces sought to humiliate people as a way of dissuading any support for armed rebels fighting against Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory. As the rebellion was crushed, Indian soldiers mostly stopped using public sit-ups as a form of punishment.
So when photos appeared on social media showing the skinny boy in a red sweater forced to sit, squat and crunch awkwardly while surrounded by armed soldiers in riot gear, Kashmiris were outraged.