Blind since age 8, Kashmir’s Irfan Ahmad Lone clears UPSC with AIR 957 — a first for Bandipora
Naidkhai, Bandipora: For days now, the small house in Naidkhai village has barely had a quiet moment. Neighbours drop in. Relatives travel from nearby districts. Children peek through the doorway. There is no wedding, no festival. They have come to meet Irfan Ahmad Lone, 30, the son of a casual labourer who just did what no one from Bandipora district has done before.
Irfan cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2025, securing an All India Rank of 957 in his third attempt. He did it without being able to see the question paper.
Irfan lost both eyes before he was ten. By age eight, after 18 surgeries, he was completely blind. His father, a casual labourer, sold everything the family had to keep him in school. To understand what that rank means, you have to go back to a summer afternoon in 1999. Irfan was four years old, chasing friends through the lanes of his village in north Kashmir. What followed were years of hospitals, operations, and uncertainty. By eight, the surgeries ended. His sight did not return. But school did. With his father’s support, Irfan continued his education, moving from Naidkhai to college and then preparing for one of India’s toughest exams.
On April 30, 2026, the results made him the first from Bandipora district to clear UPSC.For the village, the rank is more than a number. It is proof, parents say, that their children can aim beyond the boundaries they were born into — even when the path starts in darkness.
