Lafir learnt the game of billiards and pursued his interest in the sport at the age of seven through his father S. L. M. Junaid. His father was a domestic snooker player who has played in friendly domestic tournaments and it inspired Lafir to take up the sport. He initially learnt to play billiards on his family dining table very often with his father using a
broomstick as a cue and
marbles as cue balls. Lafir also took part in Sri Lankan National Billiards Championships and won his first national snooker championship in 1948. He then reigned the Sri Lanka National Snooker Championship from 1952 to 1973, winning 16 successive tournaments. He also then participated in the Indian Snooker Championship and won it on seven occasions (1956, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1974–75 and 1976). He managed to defeat Indian national champion
Chandra Hirjee in the 1956 and 1957 Indian Snooker Championship finals. A renowned businessman
U. W. Sumathipala came forward to assist Lafir in terms of financial needs after watching him scoring 500 break points in a domestic friendly game. Sumathipala assisted him to take part in overseas International competitions and Lafir also took part in friendly tours organised and sponsored by U. W. Sumathipala's son Jagath Sumathipala. Former Sri Lankan Prime Minister
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike also supported Lafir and gave financial assistance in order to take part in international competitions. Lafir also competed at Amateur World Championships and he finished 3rd on his debut World Championships in
1963 which was held in
Calcutta. He finished at fourth position in the
1966 World Amateur Snooker Championship. He also emerged as runners-up to England's
Leslie Driffield at the 1967 IBSF World Billiards Championship. He again finished at third position at the
1968 World Amateur Snooker Championship and finished fourth place in the 1971 World Amateur Championship. He had an outstanding unbeaten run in the 1973 tournament winning all nine matches and remained unbeaten in the tournament. He defeated
Clive Everton,
Michael Ferreira, Lu Demarco, Alfred Nolan, Eric Simmons, Brian Kirkness, Phil Tarrant and
Paul Mifsud in the round robin and preliminary rounds to reach his second IBSF finals and went onto defeat Sathish Mohan in the final. During the tournament, in a match against New Zealand's Eric Simmons he created a world record for highest break in a single set with 859 points. It also remained as the only world championship title won by him. Lafir became the first Sri Lankan to win a billiards world championship and still remains as the only Sri Lankan to have won a billiards world championship title. However he wasn't able to defend his world title in the next World Championships in 1974 eventually being knocked out in the quarterfinals. He later served as an employee for
Sri Lanka Transport Board after retiring from professional billiards. == Honours ==