Martyred soldier was a sports enthusiast
He was part of the hockey team at the defence academy, also enjoyed volleyball.
shroud of sadness hangs over a small village in the interiors of strife-torn southern Kashmir, the walls of which are covered with paintings of Pakistani flags and graffiti calling out for ‘azadi’. Venture into its alleys, and you come across a two-storeyed house where neighbours have gathered to mourn the death of 22-year-old Ummar Fayaz, an Indian army soldier who had come home to attend a marriage function, allegedly at the hands of militants.
Ummar’s bullet-ridden body was found on Wednesday morning, a few hours after he was abducted by masked militants from the wedding function of his cousin in an adjacent village.
“My son was born in 1994, and was about to turn just 23 in a few weeks. He was a very good boy, my only one...” said Fayaz Ahmed, his father, before breaking down into tears. Then he subsided into silence, tears still streaming down his face, even as his relatives pitched in to narrate the story of the deceased soldier, who was to turn 23 on June 8.
“Ummar was an exceptionally brilliant student who secured 96% in his Class 12 exams. Though he was preparing for the All India Engineering Entrance Examination, he qualified for the National Defence Academy first,” said Asmat, Ummar’s younger sister.
The soldier’s mother didn’t speak either. She just stared blankly into space. Ahmed, a farmer, wanted Ummar to become a pilot. “Father was very proud of him. We don’t know what to say,” said Asmat.
Mohammad Ashraf, a relative, said three gunmen had climbed over the walls of the house from where Ummar was abducted. “The wedding of Umar’s cousin was still underway when that happened. Apparently, the gunmen went upstairs and specifically targeted Ummar.”
No distress call was made to the police after the abduction. The body was found the next morning at Harmain Chowk in Shopian.