Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who was part of ‘Operation Black Tornado’ during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in 2008, lost his life while saving the lives of hostages in Taj Hotel on November 28, 2008. On January 26, 2009, he was conferred the Ashok Chakra posthumously, the country’s highest peace time gallantry award.
He was born on March 15, 1977 and joined the National Defence Academy in Pune in 1995. Sandeep was commissioned a lieutenant in the 7th Battalion of the Bihar Regiment on June 12 June, 1999 and was also part of Operation Vijay in July 1999. He joined NSG commando service in 2007.
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His father K Unnikrishnan once told PTI that his son believed in serving the nation in every possible way and used a major part of his salary to help others.
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The retired ISRO officer and proud father said only after he had gone, “I came to know about his charity. “Though he was drawing a decent salary, I only found 4,000 in his bank account after his death. I thought he could have been buying costly branded products. But his colleagues told me how he helped others. He once helped his colleague, who was unable to bear health expenses of his mother. Sandeep was regularly donating money to a number of charitable institutions. I started receiving reminders on renewal of donations after his departure,” he added.
Tucked in a quiet locality in Bengaluru, the two-story housed has pictures of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan everywhere. Major Sandeep’s house is full of memories and has a collection of his personal articles, which constantly reminds everyone of his bravery and sacrifice.
His father described him as person who had this attitude of winning in everything that he did and liked Sachin Tendulkar for this reason.
The last message of the braveheart to his personnel while carrying out the operation was, “Don’t come up, I will handle them.” These words have left a deep impression on his troop commandos.
