By Ruwa Shah

New Delhi, Jun 23 (IANS): A young man from a militancy-plagued region in Jammu and Kashmir has cracked the AIIMS medical entrance test and is itching to join the country's premier medical institute as a doctor.

Shahid Nabi, a resident of Tral, a town 60 km from Srinagar, has also secured the eighth rank in the Jammu and Kashmir Common Entrance Test (JKCET).

Naturally, there is elation in his village, Baragam. Tral is considered a hotbed of militancy and usually remains socially disturbed.

Son of a farmer and a house-maker, Nabi, 19, said: "It was never too difficult for me to achieve this goal as I was focussed."

"The environment in my village is very sensitive, but I always stuck to my studies," Nabi told IANS over phone. Nabi said he would be joining the All India Institute of Medical Sciences as it was always his first priority.

The JKCET result was declared on Saturday night by the Board of Professional Entrance Examinations. More than 28,000 students appeared in the JKCET held in Jammu and Kashmir in May.

This is not the first time students from violence-hit areas of Kashmir Valley have earned laurels. Over the past years, many Valley students have made it to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and other competitive examinations.

In 2009, Shah Faesal, hailing from border village Lolab in Kupwara district, topped the IAS and made the Valley proud. Haroon Rashid Bhat, from Konan-Poshpora village, also topped the JKCET in 2013.

Konan-Poshpora village in Kupwara district is where security forces allegedly committed a mass rape in 1991, triggering vocal protest.