Snipper by Riaz Aqib Kohlar

About this novel

Snipper (Urdu: سنائپر) by Riaz Aqib Kohlar is a long action novel told in the first person by a young Pakistani Army sniper. It opens on his very first mission: he has been lying in the same hide near the border for hours, barely allowed to move, waiting for one target.

He tells us that in training he once lay still for thirty-six hours, and once for even longer, but training and real life are as far apart as the earth and the sky. In training, a mistake teaches you something; in the field, it costs you your jaan. He remembers what his favourite instructor told them about the sniper’s job and about how quickly things can go wrong, and he recalls a mission where a sniper missed his target and the whole team paid for it.

پہلا مشن، اکیلا سپاہی، اور ایک ہی موقع۔

His partner on this mission, Sadiq, is senior to him and also his close friend, but Sadiq twisted his ankle near the border and had to be left behind at a safe point. Sadiq wanted to call the mission off. Our narrator refused, because this is his first mission and he does not want to go back without finishing it. So now he is alone, dressed in a green ghillie suit to blend into the trees, rationing his water, eating roasted chickpeas, and fighting off sleep. As night falls he climbs down to fill his water bottle at a spring a kilometre and a half away, moving carefully through the hills, where even in July there is snow on the far peaks.

The details make this one stand out. Riaz Aqib Kohlar slows down and shows the patience, discipline and loneliness of a soldier’s work, with the tension building in every quiet hour. It’s a very different book from his romantic and social novels, and a strong pick for readers who enjoy fauji and mission stories.

You can read Snipper online here or download the complete PDF for free. For another Army story by the same writer, read Bhagora, browse our Army based Urdu novels, or see all Riaz Aqib Kohlar novels.