Mohammed Iqbal, coach for the Jammu and Kashmir Thang-Ta team and Ayjaz Ahmad Bhat, coach and general secretary of the J&K Thang-Ta Association at Khelo India Youth Games
The city of Srinagar has as many as 20 Thang-Ta clubs. Kids are keen on learning the traditional martial art form of Manipur in the valley but it was not the same 20 years ago.
Mohammed Iqbal, who is a renowned thang-ta trainer in Jammu and Kashmir. faced an unusual challenge when he tried to draw youngsters to the fascinating sport in the valley. Quite a few locals objected to girls joining his training sessions as he tried to share the love of the sport with youngsters in the region. But then, the head of a local mosque where Iqbal lived came to his rescue.
“Twenty years ago, I was a private trainer and was offering free classes to boys and girls,” Iqbal said as his team competed in the Khelo India Youth Games in Panchkula.
“The locals objected to girls joining my classes. Many of them responded very aggressively and kept disrupting our sessions.
“The maulvi and several school principals vouched for my character and assured the agitators that I would take good care of the children, and here I am,” he said.
It helped that the girls loved the sport and each was determined to stick on despite the opposition. Over the years, under the shadow of militancy, Mohammed Iqbal has drawn thousands of children to thang-ta, desperately hoping to keep them in the mainstream.