Hemant Karkare, chief of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad, was critically injured in a jeep ambush in Mumbai on 26 November 2008.
9:40 PM, 26 November 2008
At 9:40 PM on 26 November 2008, Hemant Karkare, Joint Commissioner of Police and chief of the Anti-Terrorist Squad, was told of a terrorist attack at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai. He sent teams to close likely escape routes and went with a small team to Cama Hospital, where the attackers had by then moved.
A firefight forced them to change position. Karkare went after them, and his jeep was ambushed. He was critically injured. According to the Press Information Bureau's account of the award, he continued to lead the operation and succeeded in injuring one of the terrorists. Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and Inspector Vijay Salaskar were in the same action and also received the Ashoka Chakra after their deaths.
Engineer, then IPS officer
Karkare was born on 12 December 1954 and took a mechanical engineering degree at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, in 1975. He worked for the National Productivity Council and Hindustan Lever before joining the Indian Police Service in the 1982 batch. He became chief of the state's Anti-Terrorist Squad in January 2008. His wife, Kavita Karkare, received the Ashoka Chakra from President Pratibha Patil on 26 January 2009.
Official text from the Press Information Bureau
On 26th November 2008 at 9:40 PM, Shri Hemant Kamlakar Karkare, Joint Commissioner of Police and Chief of the Anti-Terrorist Squad, received information about a terrorist attack at Chhatrapati Sivaji Terminus Railway Station, Mumbai. Acting swiftly, Shri Karkare dispatched teams to plug the possible escape routes and himself alongwith a small team rushed to Cama Hospital where the terrorists had moved by then. A firefight ensued between the terrorists and the police team. As a result, the terrorists were forced to change their position. Shri Karkare pursued the terrorists but in the process his jeep got ambushed and he was critically injured. He however, continued to lead the operation and succeeded in injuring one of the terrorists. Shri Hemant Kamlakar Karkare displayed courage and leadership of the highest order in fighting the terrorists and made the supreme sacrifice for the nation.
Source: Press Information Bureau release. Reproduced as printed, including any errors in the original.
Cover image: Koshy Koshy from Faridabad, Haryana, India, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hemant_Karkare_(3067374593).jpg