Hundreds of Kashmiri youth appear for Indian Army written test at Budgam

The candidates are hopeful of getting the opportunity to join the Indian Army and serve their country. (Representational Image: iStock)


A written test for the aspirants to the Indian Army was conducted in Budgam on Sunday. The candidates are hopeful of getting the opportunity to join the Indian Army and serve their country. They further said that they are ready to serve the nation regardless of where their postings will be.

“I have cleared all the physical and medical tests. If I pass the written test, I will join the army and do something for my country. I urge others in the state to do the same and contribute to the country,” ANI quoted Asif Ahmed Naik, an army aspirant who took the test.

About a week back, two younger brothers of Indian Army soldier, Aurengzeb, had joined the Army. The two brothers, Mohammad Shabir and Mohammad Tariq, proudly had donned the military uniform at an enrolment ceremony of 100 soldiers at Ranchi in Jharkhand.

Their elder brother, Rifleman Aurangzeb was abducted from Pulwama and then brutally assassinated in Shopian in South Kashmir by terrorists in June last year while he was proceeding home on leave to celebrate Eid with his parents and siblings.

23-years-old Tariq and 21-year-old Shabir were selected during an Army recruitment drive at Surankote in Poonch in May. Their father Mohammad Hanief Salani is also a former Armyman.

They too had conveyed the same emotions of their love for the country and the desire to keep alive the legacy of “love for the country” and “take revenge for Aurangzeb’s death”.

Rifleman Aurangzeb was part of the commando unit which had killed “A++” category Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sameer Tiger in an encounter in April 2018. Sameer Ahmed Bhat, alias Sameer Tiger, the Hizbul Mujahideen’s main recruiter, was gunned down in Pulwama district’s Drabgam area.

Following Aurangzeb’s brutal killing, around 50 men from his native Salani village in Mendhar in south Kashmir left their jobs in Saudi Arabia to return to their village to join the Army and join the fight against terrorism.

Mohammad Kiramat, one of the men, had told NDTV that all of the men left Saudi Arabia the day they heard of Aurangzeb’s killing.

“When we heard about the killing of brother Aurangzeb, we left Saudi Arabia the same day, and forcibly got ourselves relieved from the job,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Kiramat added that leaving jobs on the spot is difficult in Saudi Arabia but they managed somehow.