Lt Fayaz wasn’t studious, but an extraordinary student

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 10

Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz wanted to be a basketball player but the humiliation his father, Fayaz Ahmad Parray, faced after he was expelled from school changed the course of his career.

A sports freak, Lt Fayaz was expelled from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district for playing cards. That one incident changed his life for ever. His classmates remember him as an extraordinary student.

Lt Fayaz was not studious but he was an extraordinary student, says his school friend Sajid Yousuf.

“He was expelled from school several times and I remember once in Class XI, he was rusticated for playing cards with some outsiders. His father came to the school and begged the principal to retain him,” Yousuf said.

Lt Fayaz’s life changed after his father put his cap at the principal’s feet and begged him to retain him, Yousuf said. “After that incident, he was allowed to return to school. Ummer promised me that he will work hard and do the best in life,” he said. Of the many students of the school who appeared in the NDA exam, only Ummer qualified, proving his principal wrong that he was a failure. Some months after his selection in the NDA, the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya principal invited Lt Fayaz to the school to provide counselling and guidance to the students, Yousuf said. Lt Fayaz’s another classmate Mudasir Yatoo, a resident of Kulgam, could not hold back his tears when this reporter called him to know about the slain Army officer’s school life.

He was a sports freak but an intelligent and extraordinary student, said Yatoo.From Class VI, Yatoo and Ummer were in the same dormitory of the boarding school. He was a down to earth boy and helpful to everyone, he said. “He (Lt Fayaz) would love to guide his friends in sports and studies,” Yatoo said.

Lt Fayaz had invited Mushtaq Ahmad of Anantnag district, his junior at school, to his passing-out parade at the Dehradun Military Academy on December 10, 2016. Mushtaq and another friend had joined Lt Fayaz at the celebrations.

“I found him a humble guy. He was cool minded and had no streak of arrogance despite becoming an Army officer,” he said.