THE RUSH OF BEING WITH THE BEST at KP ALL PAKISTAN SHOOTING CHALLENGE 2014

My veins acting like a flood canal with adrenaline rush, I can hear myself breathing abnormally, rushing out the air inside my lungs, my feet cannot stay at one place on the ground, my hands are sweating in the mystic cold morning and the water I sip is not helping me calm down even a little. CALL FOR SQUAD NO.2 , the referee announces, I get up as something bit me, get my shotgun, with its steal freezing cold and stand in line with the rest of the shooters at the KP ALL PAKISTAN SHOOTING CHALLENGE 2014. Ismail Khan shoots, then comes Aimal Rasheed does so as well. I don’t look at them or at their birds being shot or not. I did not want to take any pressure but then comes Maj. Abubakar Saddique the infamous skeet shooter before me. He stands on the station as if he is meant to be there since his birth. I look at his stance, his holding point and then the call comes haa! and shots fired, he was so quick and dead on. Ok Tariq Khattak, an amateur among the super 6, its time for you to show. I stand on the station and completely forgets where my holding point was, I did not want to give the call as I was not sure whether my stance was right  but I had to as the time was short and still managed to shoot and kill two targets, a sigh of relief. After that I do not remember how the rest of the 22 shots went but managed 12 kills.

My experience to co-organize KP ALL PAKISTAN SHOOTING CHALLENGE, was a blast indeed. The pressure to do all right and also shoot well with the professionals standing along with us amateur super 6 players, was so great and still so humble that we learned a million things in a matter of just two days.  Being in an event like this you get to judge yourself, and assess where you stand. The minute you get that gun into your hands, you forget everything outside that range. You don’t remember who you are,  you don’t seem to bother if you are standing in the sun or shade, dust or clear, you don’t seem to be bothered by all the responsibilities on your head for organizing a huge event, you are also least bothered even if the person next to you is cursing you in public (just an example). The only thing that matters is when, how and where I am going to shoot that orange little bird coming out of the house at a speed of 80 Km/h. You are only concerned if you are standing right and holding a true position taught to you by your mentors and not about that pretty lady announcer waiting for you to finalize the content for the closing ceremony. Yes that was also my responsibility. She did very well though. Thanks to her for being patient against my critic.

6 days of fun and shooting passed so quickly, I wish we had organized it for a month. I am sitting here at home thinking , what now, and a text from Junaid Shinwari rings. Tariq Bhai , office is so boring. Lolzzz, Yes Junaid! it is. Its never the same without what you love to do, and spend all day doing it and we have been doing it for almost a month now to get ready for these six days of pure fun. We had to keep up with our tradition of hospitality for our guest players, accommodate our guests and sponsors, come up with budget plans, security plans, non stop supply of ammo and targets and the list goes on and on and on. But all thumbs up to our organizing committee Salman Afridi, Taimur Zeb, Hamyun Momand, Abdul Qadir, Aimal Rasheed, Kashif Amin, Sabir Shah, Junaid Shinwari and myself Tariq Khattak, Our Sponsors, and last but no the least our 15 Baluch of the Pak Army. Salute to you all esp; Captain Shahrukh, his team of men at the range and Core Headquarters Peshawar. You guys truly are AWAL HE AWAL. Thank you all, we love you and hope to be partners again next year to bring even a bigger show for the country to see. Grateful to the players who came despite being threatened of being banned by NRA and took part. That means a lot. Though the story of Rifle Associations and NRA in our country is another to share some other time, I just would like to say, we need to be more concerned about the game and not about our egos.  Our people need such activities. Just look at the number of children, women, young and old who took part in our event. They were so rejoiced and stress free, their faces would say everything when they shot a few rounds in the games.

Congratulations to the winners, players, partners, spectators everyone; WE ARE ALL VICTORS HERE.