Afzal Guru's son secures 19th position in Class X exam; evokes joy in Valley

Srinagar: The 10th class examination results in Kashmir, declared on Sunday evening, had a ‘pleasant surprise’ for many people in the Valley.

Ghalib, the only child of Parliament attack convict Muhammad Afzal Guru, secured 19th position after obtaining 474 marks (A1 grade in all subjects) in the annual examination conducted by Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (J&KBOSE).

Many people quickly took to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to express joy over it and congratulate his mother Tabbasum. “Congratulations to him. May God bless him and his Dad. Allah may give Jannat ul Firdous to him (Guru)”, wrote Manoj Gandhota on Facebook. “He has done his father proud,” said another Ayaz.

"Most heartening news. May Allah always bless the child with success in his endeavours, happiness, peace, heal family's pain," wrote Rajni Shaleen Chopra on Twitter. Well known writer from Goa Vivek Menezes tweeted "Love it. The way to beat the conqueror is from inside. Roman history abounds with such examples."

A Kashmiri Pandit Rajiv Kaul tweeted, “Afzal’s son rejected separatists, Hope others will learn from the youngster, Congrats!”

Guru was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 9, 2013.

Ghalib said, “My dad had a dream and I'll fulfil that": His mother Tabbasum told visiting reporters at her Sopore residence, "Today we miss Afzal more, we wanted to celebrate Galib's success with him".

About 65.27 % of the total students who appeared in annual examinations have been declared successful. Tabish Manzoor Khan of Radiant Public School Anantnag secured top position by scoring 498 marks out of a total of 500. While Aneesa Haleen of Christian missionary Mallinson School, Srinagar and Hiba Intikhab of Shah-e-Hamdan Memorial School Shopian secured second and third positions. They scored 491 and 490 marks, respectively.