Mumbai/Bangalore/New Delhi: India, rocked and traumatised by the unprecedented terror strikes in Mumbai, bid an emotional farewell on Saturday to its sentinels Hemant Karkare, Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Gajender Singh who died while battling terrorists who attacked the country's financial capital.
As terrorists Wednesday night targeted 10 prominent places in south Mumbai, Karkare, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief and a highly regarded police officer, donned his helmet and bulletproof jacket and set out to take them on.
The protection, however, proved inadequate and Karkare fell to the terrorists' bullets. He was cremated yesterday in the city he tried to shield from the militants.
Body flown home
Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havildar Gajender Singh, who belonged to the National Security Guards (NSG), died Friday. While Unnikrishnan was killed fighting terrorists holed up in the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, Singh died during the security operation at Nariman House.
Unnikrishnan's body was taken to his residence in Bangalore Friday night and he was cremated yesterday. Singh's body was first taken to New Delhi, where senior army and paramilitary officials officers paid their tributes. It was then flown in a special aircraft to his hometown Dehradun in Uttarakhand for the funeral.
The ceremonies, which were telecast live on TV news channels, were a chilling reminder of the dangers that the men in uniform regularly face.
Karkare's body was taken in a flower bedecked open van from his home in Hindu Colony in Dadar East to the Shivaji Park crematorium in Mumbai. A crowd of nearly 5,000 lined the three kilometre stretch to pay tributes to the martyr as a police band played along.
The 58-year-old Karkare, a 1982 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, was in the spotlight for leading investigation into the September 29 blasts in Maharashtra's Malegaon town. Ten people, including Sadhvi Pragnya Thakur and Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, were arrested.
