14 FROM J&K CLEAR CIVIL SERVICES EXAM

SRINAGAR: For the first time, as many as 14 students from Jammu & Kashmir have cleared the civil services examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.

Twenty-six-year old Suhail Qasim Mir, whose father Mohammad Qasim Mir is a head constable in Srinagar, succeeded in his first attempt to clear the examination, standing 125th among 1,099 candidates selected for the Indian Administrative Service and other top government jobs. Suhail graduated from the government degree college in Bemina here before moving to Delhi for management studies at the Jamia Millia Islamia University.

For Bilal Mohiuddin, who scored 10th rank and was earlier in the Indian Forest Service, the stakes have never been higher. The father in him credits his success to his seven-month-old daughter, Mariam. “After she was born in September, I cleared my preliminaries. And since then there has been no looking back,” he said.

Zaffar Iqbal, who ranked 39, attributed his achievement to the almighty. A native of Jarran Wali Gali in Mendhar sub-division of Poonch district, Iqbal cracked the exams in the fourth attempt. Zaffar, a BTech (Civil) from NIT Hamirpur, is presently working as an assistant engineer in state public works department. Ayushi Sudhan from Jammu division scored 65th rank. Other successful candidates include Bisma Qazi (115), Inabat Khaliq (604), Syed Fakhruddin (86), Saqib Yousuf (rank 472), Faisal Javed (rank 610), Amir Bashir (rank 1,087), Sahil Dhingra and Aditya Bhardwaj.

“You all make us proud. Our youth are full of talent, they only need an opportunity,” Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Facebook, while former CM Omar Abdullah tweeted his congratulations to the state’s candidates who had cleared the competitive examination.

Meanwhile, the DGP also sanctioned a special reward of ₹10,000 each to 14 wards of serving police personnel out of the Central Police Welfare Fund (CPWF).