'Sandeep laid down his life for the country's safety. But I don't know whether the country has become safer today.'
President Pratibha Patil has cleared the names of slain former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare, sub-inspector Tukaram Gopal Omble and National Security Guard commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who laid down their lives during the Mumbai terror strikes, for Ashok Chakra. A senior Rashtrapati Bhavan official told rediff.com, "All that I can tell you is that she has cleared the file and it has been sent to home ministry."
'Unni swung up his MP5 and fired a burst across the atrium. The bullets hammered into the wall. Then he bounded up the stairs leading to the other set of doors opening into the Palm Lounge. It was a terribly risky move because he didn't have a buddy to cover him.'
'They came to our bedrooms, woke people who were sleeping, and shot them. For what? For what?'
Family members, friends and army personnel besides thousands of ordinary people came out in the streets to pay homage to the martyr who laid down his life during the unprecedented anti-terror operation.
'People think about his final 48 hours and how did he become a martyr... but the life I came to know from uncle and aunty was of someone who was so full of joy and laughter.'
'People only knew about the hundreds of people he had saved and his Ashoka Chakra.' 'I came to know about this beautiful life that he had lived, that was so much more than the way he died.' 'I was interested in that being.'
The Supreme Court has sought responses from the Centre and others on a plea challenging the validity of a provision of the Income Tax Act that allows political parties to receive "anonymous" cash donations below Rs 2,000.
An officer's enclave in memory of National Security Guard commando Sandeep Unnikrishnan, killed while fighting terrorists in Taj Hotel in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, was unveiled in the presence of his parents in Bangalore in Friday.
35-year-old K Mohanan, a native of Kozhikode in Kerala, had poured kerosene on his body and set himself on fire outside Gate No 4 of Parliament House near Vijay Chowk on Thursday evening.
K Mohanan, a native of Kozhikode in Kerala, poured kerosene on his body and set himself afire outside Gate No 4 of Parliament House near Vijay Chowk at around 6 pm.
Mumbai attack martyr Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's uncle, who attempted self immolation to protest the government's alleged apathy in treating victims of the 26/11 strike, succumbed to injuries, police said on Saturday. K Mohanan, 56, who had suffered 98 per cent burn injuries, died at 11.55 pm on Friday night at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi. While undergoing treatment, he had also suffered a heart attack.
A special screening of the film Major, starring Adivi Sesh, Saiee Manjrekar, Sobhita Dhulipala, Prakash Raj and Revathi, was held in Mumbai last night.
'Every scene we have written in the film encapsulates the spirit of his life.'
Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Wednesday said that he is deeply pained that a controversy has been raked up over his visit to slain National Security Guard commando Sandeep Unnikrishnan's house in Bangalore.Speaking in the state assembly, he said certain remarks were attributed to him and people have been misled by this.Achuthanandan made the statement in the Assembly during the Zero Hour, after the opposition United Democratic Front members raised the issue.
In the run up to the second anniversary of the horrific Mumbai terror attacks of November 26, the father of National Security Guard commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who died battling terrorists at the Taj Mahal hotel, has begun a nearly 2000-km journey from Delhi to Mumbai to pay homage to the 26/11 martyrs. Vicky Nanjappa meets the man
Maharashtra Governor Ramesh Bais and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday paid floral tributes to the martyrs who laid down their lives while fighting terrorists who attacked the metropolis on this day 15 years ago.
was black Friday for the Unnikrishnan family as news of their 31-year-old son, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, on deputation with the National Security Guards, being killed in anti-terror operation in Mumbai filtered in on Friday. Sandeep, who passed out from Frank Anthony School in Bengaluru and was later commissioned in the Bihar Regiment in 1999, was among the brave armed forced personnel who laid down their lives in the strike against terrorists in Mumbai
A hoarding an MNS leader posted in Mahim, north-central Mumbai, to mark the first anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks, omits National Security Guard commandos Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havaldar Gajendra Singh Bisht who lost their lives battling terrorists at the Taj Mahal hotel and Nariman House respectively.
K Unnikrishnan, father of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who was slain in the 26/11 terror attacks, cycled into Mumbai's western suburb of Dahisar on the morning of November 25. His wife Dhanalakshmi accompanied him. Rajesh Karkera and Abhishek Mande watched the couple address a small gathering of locals.
While the rest of India remembers the 26/11 victims and martyrs today, for Major Unnikrishnan's parents, life would never be the same again."Not a single day passes when we don't think about him," says K Unnikrishnan, father of Major Unnikrishnan.
'The action which ought to be taken by him has not been taken and problems will not be solved with such meetings.'
K Unnikrishnan, father of 26/11 martyr National Security Guard commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, will embark on a unique bicycle journey from India Gate in New Delhi to the Gateway of India in Mumbai in memory of those who lost their lives during the horrific terror attacks.
Former police officers and judges of the High Court and Supreme Court say that there is a need to bring back tougher laws since cases of terrorism have international ramification and under normal procedures there are too many obstacles that make the case of the prosecution extremely difficult.
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While announcing the culmination of operations inside the Taj Hotel early Saturday morning, NSG Director General J K Dutt said Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who was killed in action on Friday, played a stellar role in eliminating the terrorists.
Faced with criticism for delay in showing respect to slain NSG commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Sunday called on the soldier's family members here, but a depressed father of Sandeep declined to accept his condolences.
'If it had not been (Major) Sandeep's house, not even a dog would have glanced that way.' This was how Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan heaped scorn on Monday on the family of NSG Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan slain in the Mumbai terror attack during commando operations, igniting a controversy after smarting under the snub from the father of the angry officer's when he went to Bangalore to offer his condolences.
Mumbai Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar and Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Ombale, apart from National Security Guard commandos Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havildar Gajender Singh too would receive the medal posthumously for their acts of bravery during the November Mumbai attacks. Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who died fighting terrorists in the Batla House operation in the capital in September last year, has also been named for the award.
Two National Security Guards personnel, including an officer, were on Friday were killed and six other commandos injured during operations against terrorists in Mumbai, the first casualties suffered by the elite force during the siege.
Prayers and candle-light vigils were held across Mumbai and various parts of the country on Thursday to pay homage to the victims on the first anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks. The Mumbai police will hold a peace flag march in a show of strength from the Air India building at Nariman Point to Girgaum Chowpatty. The march will also include Force One, the Quick Response Team and the police team's newly-acquired armoured vehicles.
As V S Achuthanandan came under attack for his controversial remarks against the family of slain National Security Guard officer Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the United Democratic Front tried to raise the issue in the Kerala Assembly, but a discussion on it was put off for Wednesday as the Chief Minister was not present in the House. At the beginning of Zero Hour, Opposition leader Oommen Chandy sought to move an adjournment motion on the issue.
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'I can easily say that BJP should not have joined hands with PDP in Jammu and Kashmir. If you are totally against terrorism, then you have to be sincere in that'
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Tributes were also paid at the places targeted by terrorists including Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Cama and Albless Hospital, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, the Oberoi Trident, Nariman House, the Jewish community centre, and the memorial of ASI Tukaram Omble who was martyred while overpowering Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist who was captured alive.