From injury in landmine blast to Para World Cup gold: Armyman-turned-marksman Amir Ahmed Bhat's journey
John Muhammad Bhat still remembers the fateful day when he got the call from the Indian Army officers about his younger brother, Amir Ahmad Bhat, an army rifleman and sniper, getting injured in a landmine blast during a special operation near the Line of Control (LOC) in Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir.
On Saturday, as 30-year-old Amir won the gold medal in the P3-Mixed 25m Pistol category at the World Shooting Para Sport (WSPS) World Cup in Changwon, Korea, the Bhat family felt a sense of vindication; for Amir had fulfilled his purpose of making his country proud, one way or another.
'Right from Amir joining the Indian Army to the day he suffered the injury to today, Amir has always wanted to make India proud and that's what he has done again. Even when he got injured during the special operations, he would tell us, 'It's allah's will and he surely will have some plans for me to serve my country.' Like always, he would be the happiest to watch the Indian anthem play and the Indian flag rise at the shooting range today and that's what he will share with us,' John told The Indian Express.
Father Abdul too shares his joy, 'We feel very happy when Amir wins a medal for India. First Amir had done the Indian Army proud and now he is doing India proud.'
The Bhats have been small-time farmers, apart from working as daily-wage labourers, for generations at the village of Damhal, nine kms from Anantnag, the district headquarters. With his father working as a plumber in the village to support the family, a young Amir, along with his elder brother, would work in loading and unloading of stones at the local stone market, earning Rs 300-400 daily.
'Our father always taught us that no work is small or big. As young kids, we would also see encounters or gunfights apart from search operations happening in or around villages often during 2006-2010 but then we knew we cannot let these things disturb us and the only way we could improve our lives was by working to support our father,' John remembers.
It was in 2012 that a young Amir would enlist for an Indian Army recruitment rally in Anantnag. 'Amir always wanted to be an Indian Air Force Pilot. But we had no means to support the coaching. He failed his maths exams in 12th and when one of our relatives scolded him, he went to another relative's home to spend the night. The next day, he enlisted in the Indian Army recruitment rally in Anantnag and later cleared all the tests,' elder brother John says.
With him being enlisted in Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry 15th battalion, Amir would spend the next six years making his way to the Special Operations Ghatak Platoon of the battalion, with which, in March 2018, he was part of the special operation that saw him lose the heel (calcaneus) and the adjoining Talus bone in his left leg in the landmine blast.
'When we met the Commanding Officer of his unit, he told me that Amir had walked 15 kms from the place of the landmine blast on his own to where the rescue unit was placed. The next six months we spent time in Army Hospitals in Udhampur as well RR Hospital in Delhi before Co.l Pawan Sharma did multiple surgeries on his leg. 18 units of blood were transfused during the surgeries and it was Amir's willpower which saw him recover and he always talked about rejoining his unit and not sitting idle at home,' John recalls.
With him making full recovery by 2020, Amir rejoined his unit as a trainer before his Commanding officer recommended him to train at the Army Marksman Unit in Mhow in 2021. While the then Naib Subedar opted to train in 50m rifle prone events initially, he soon started training in pistol events and won his first para nationals medal in the form of a silver in the 2022 para nationals.
'With him being a special forces sniper, Amir always had the shooting IQ. While each armyman lives by the motto one shot one kill, precision shooting is different. We had to make him understand the technicalities of precision shooting apart from making his body adjust to shooting for 3-4 hours, aiming again and again. We worked on his body posture and strengthening the core to handle the balance while shooting sitting,' remembers coach Subedar Major Rajesh Kumar of AMU.
In 2023, Amir won the bronze in 50m pistol SH1 category in WSPS World Cup in Korea before winning a silver in 25m Pistol SH1 in the next world cup in Croatia before he sealed his spot in the Indian Para Shooting team for Paris Paralympics post the Paralympics trials in May last year. While Amir missed advancing to the final in Paris, he won the gold with a score of 24 in Saturday's final after topping the qualification with a score of 582. 'Amir's strength has always been his sharp shooting skills and the way he adjusted his body and mind to shoot in precision shooting,' says national para shooting pistol coach Subash Rana.
'Training under foreign coach Pavel Smirnov and along with Gurpreet Singh (a Rio Olympian) has also made him a more technically stronger shooter and this gold will further motivate him,' said Col Naren Babu, CO, Army Marksman Unit, Mhow.
Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story 'Harmans of Moga', Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women's cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships.
An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin's interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More
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