Boxing saved 14-year-old Mohammad Yasser from getting into drugs, a menace in the old residential complex of District Institute of Education and Training (DIET)in Rajouri, where his family shifted after their home was demolished in an anti-encroachment drive in Bela Colony in 2018. Last week, the teenager rose above circumstances to excel in the ring by winning a gold medal (58 kg) at the Asian Under-15 Boxing Championships in Tashkent.
“If my younger brother and I had not started boxing, we would have fallen into drugs,” Yasser told The Indian Express.
Life has been tough for Yasser. He works as a part-time cook for some of the MBBS students of the Government Medical College in Rajouri. His mother, Naseem Akhter, is a house help. His father, Nadeem, who worked as a construction worker, passed away following a heart attack when Yasser was six years old. Yasser will go back to cooking to earn a living when not training.
A young Mohammad Yasser with younger brother Mohammad Fareed during training. (Special Arrangement)
“I have been working as a part-time cook to support my mother for the last three years. When I won the gold in Uzbekistan, the first thought which came to my mind was to tell my younger brother, who stepped in for me, that I would be back in the kitchen soon,” Yasser said.
The family, two brothers, a sister and their mother, live in a one-room accommodation in a dilapidated building of the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), where slum-dwellers like his family moved into.
“When our home was demolished, we were shifted to the old DIET complex. Our neighbour’s family was into drugs. My mother would send my brother and me to the nearby stadium to play while she took our sister along with her so that we could stay away from the drug menace. I did not have any money to get anything for my mother from Uzbekistan, but I am going home with this gold medal. To win a gold medal for India is my biggest achievement,” Yasser said.
At Tashkent, Yasser scored wins over Kyrgyzstan’s Akbarzhan Nabidzhanov, Kazakhstan’s Meiirlan Beissekhan and beat Iran’s S Mousa in the semifinal. In the final, he got the better of home favourite Abdulloh Karimjonov. The Jammu and Kashmir boxer sees this title as a major step towards his dream of representing India at the Olympics. “It was the first time that I could go abroad. After my daily practice at Rajouri Stadium, I would watch videos of Kazakh and Uzbek boxers as well as those of Indian pro boxer Nishant Dev bhaiya by borrowing phones from doctors. The wins in Tashkent gave me the belief that perhaps one day, I can win an Olympic medal,” Yasser said.
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His mother, Naseem, worked hard to ensure she could support the boxing careers of both her sons. When talking over the phone, she had to cut short her conversation because of the noise from a fight between drug addicts outside their home.
Mohammad Yasser with coach Mohammad Ishtiaque Malik. (Special Arrangement)
“I started working after my husband died. I would get paid Rs 2,000 each from the three houses I worked in. Whatever I could do to support my kids, I did. Sometimes my health would deteriorate too. At times, thieves would break in and take the money and utensils away. I did not find peace. There were days when we went to sleep hungry. Now he is coming with a medal, I will have peace,” Naseem said.
The two brothers started by getting water for boxers and marking lines with white powder at the JK Sports Council Stadium near their home. “There were days when we would only drink water or only have a roti with sugar. We got about Rs 15 from the boxers for helping them out, but some of them refused to pay us. We would then get into arguments and fights,” Yasser said.
Natural instinct
The minor brawls the brothers were involved in changed their fortunes. Mohammad Ishtiaque Malik, a coach at the Khelo India Centre at Rajouri, felt the brothers have an instinct to throw punches. He took them under his wings. Malik, who was a trainee of Jagdish Singh, mentor to Beijing Olympics bronze medallist Vijender Singh, was a good scout.
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“Both Yasser and Fareed would fight at the stadium near their home with the seniors when they would not pay them for the work. I was impressed by their fighting skills and attitude. Initially, I did not tell their mother about their boxing training,” Malik said.
In 2024, Yasser won the 55-Kg title in the Jammu and Kashmir Sub-Junior Championships. He followed it up by winning the Sub-Junior Nationals last year, after which he was asked to join the national camp. “Yasser had strength as well as the willpower. And right from day one, his straight punches were good. He had good lower-body strength, but we had to work on his upper-body strength. With time, his hook and jab became his strength,” Malik said.
The family stays in one room in this old DIET building in Rajouri. (Special Arrangement)
Post his national medal, Yasser received a monthly stipend of Rs 4000 from Abhishek Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri. He saved up money to buy a pair of boxing gloves and also gave some of it to his mother. “I have not got any prize money for state or national medals yet,” Yasser said.
Before he travels from Jammu to Rajouri, Yasser wants to buy a suit set for his mother. “She has not skipped her work for a single day and has sacrificed a lot.”
