Altaf Hamid Rao,
MIRPUR (AJK): Establishing the new world record two OF Kashmir-born Hearing Impaired and Mentally Retarded national special stars including Imran Arif and Zohaib Ashfaq emerged triumphant winning a total of seven medals for Pakistan, in the keenly-contested World Special Olympic games recently played in Abu Dhabi state of the United Arab Emirates, it was officially declared.
Imran Arif and Zohaib Ashfaq being members of the Pakistani contingent of the special players of different games took part in the special Olympics World Games in Abdu Dhabi. The Olympics ended last week with the formal colorful closing ceremony.
The victorious Imran Arif won a Gold Medal and two silver medals and a bronze medal in Power Lifting contest held in the Abu Dhabi Special Olympic World Games. Similarly the triumphant special played won a Gold Medal and a bronze medal in athletics contests in the same global special games.
Both special players Imran Arif and Zohaib Ashfaq are the students of Mirpur-based Kashmir Institute of Special Education (KISE), the pioneer educational institution of special children in Azad Jammu Kashmir, engaged in providing free educational facilities to the special children to make them the useful citizens for the country and the nation.
Unveiling the historic victory of the two special national starts in the world special Olympics in Abu Dhabi, Executive Director Kashmir Institute of Special Education Dr.Amjad Insari told this Correspondent here Friday that a total of 7500 special players from a total of 192 countires from the world over participated in the world special games started from March 14 and concluded on March 21 this year.
He underlined that the Pakistani contingent including from AJK showed an outstanding performance in the games by securing a total of 64 medals icnlud8ng 19 gold, 27 silver and 18 bronze medals in different contests The special players of Pakistani entourage took part in different games including football, table tennis, basket ball, Athletes, Swimming, Badminton and Boo-chi by demonstrating their high talent and skills to attain the distinctions in different events, he said.
Meanwhile both of the the victorious special players Imrarn Arif and Zohaib Ashfaq were accorded
Rousing reception on their return to home yesterday. They were received at Mangla Bridge, the gateway to this part of Kashmir, by hundreds of the jubilant including the sports lovers including AJK minister for sports, youth and culture Ch. Muhammad Saeed, DG MDA Ejaz Raza Chaudhry, city Administrator Tahir Mirza, President AJKCCI Sohail Shujah Mujahdi, ex city administrator Haji Ghulam RAsool Awami, President NGOs Council Dr. Tahir Mahmood and Executive Director KISE Dr. Amjad Ansari and others. They were garlanded by the crowd including a large number of the people belonging to their ancestral towns.
Speaking on this occasion, AJK Sports minister Ch. Muhammad Saeed and others congratulated the special players over their land slide victory in the special world games. They assured every possible assistance to the special players to ensure their active participation in similar national and international games in the future also through every possible logistic facilities of training in different games.