A budding cricketer, Maqsooma, hailing from a remote Kaksar village of Kargil district, is fast rising up the ladder to become a new sports icon from the Union Territory of Ladakh.
Maqsooma is the daughter of an Army porter, Shabir and she is trending on social media after one of her videos in which she was seen playing MS Dhoni’s legendary ‘helicopter’ shot went viral.
She is currently studying in class 6 in the Government High School (GHS), Kaksar which is located close to the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan and witnessed death and destruction at the peak of hostilities during the Kargil War in 1999. Now, the infamous war zone of the cold desert region is all set to become a breeding ground for budding cricketers.
Maqsooma and other schoolchildren have been practicing hard to hone their cricketing skills in the same campus. Former Indian skipper Virat Kohli is their favorite player and they want to emulate his performances to become world-class cricketers in the near future.
Speaking to The Pioneer, GHS, Kaksar schoolteacher Talib Hussain said, “It is the same school which was targeted by the Pakistan Army during Kargil War. Before that too, it was badly affected due to mortar shelling in 1991 and 1998.”
He said the villagers had told him that 13 schoolchildren had lost their lives due to heavy shelling during the Kargil War.
The villagers were shifted to safer areas away from the war zone. The education of the young children was badly affected due to this.
