Sheikh Rafik Mohammed, the man who made Kerala proud in Kyrgyzstan

As a young boy, Mohammed dropped out of school when he was in Class V in Calicut

It isn’t every day that an Indian makes headlines for being appointed to the top military post in Kyrgyzstan, a country of 6 million people, located at the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and best known for its place in Soviet-era politics. 

For the Indian expatriate community in West Asia, Sheikh Rafik Mohammed has set the bar high. Chairman of the Gammon Group (not to confused with Gammon Construction, the multinational), Mohammed has been appointed Major General of the Kyrgyzstan military forces by Ali Mirza, the country’s defence minister. “It is a rare military position occupied overseas by a Keralite,”