Mumbai: As the nation marks the 17th anniversary of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the daughter of martyred braveheart Hemant Karkare remembers her father, whose courage saved countless lives.
“The entire nation knows him as 26/11 hero, but for me, he was simply my papa who brought me home a puppy.”
Jui Karkare Navare shared the soft side of the commanding Hemant Karkare, the chief of the Anti-Terror Squad in Mumbai.
Jui recounted how the day was like any ordinary day, “but at the time I had no idea that my life was about to change forever in a way I could never prepare for.”
Hemant was a cheerful person at home, and in Jui’s words, “people flocked to Papa like moths to light.”
Before being tasked as the ATS chief, he was posted in the jungles of Chandrapur, in eastern Maharashtra, an area known for its history of Maoist insurgency.
Hemant was a well-paid engineer before he joined the Indian Police Service at the age of 27. In his 26 years of distinguished service, he earned the Ashoka Chakra, the nation’s highest peacetime honour for gallantry, awarded for extraordinary valour, courage, and self-sacrifice away from the battlefield.
On the day of the attack, Jui received a phone call. Her sister called, saying, “Jui, do you know Papa has put on a bulletproof jacket and helmet? There have been terror attacks in Mumbai, and he has headed in that direction.”
A call that would shake anyone up, but Jui tried staying strong as fear threatened to take over her. “I held on to my belief that Papa was invincible.”
On the evening of November 26, 2008, Mumbai witnessed simultaneous terror attacks in various locations, which took the lives of 166 people, leaving over 300 injured.
The armed militants of the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) entered the city via the sea. They carried out a series of coordinated attacks at multiple high-profile locations, including the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Oberoi Trident Hotel, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) railway station, and Nariman House.
Hemant was one of the 166 people who were killed in the attack.
“Saying goodbye to Papa wasn’t just that; it was trading future dreams for grief and nostalgia, hoping time would take the edge off the pain.”
In July 2008, four months before the attack, Jui’s parents were leaving Boston after visiting her there. “As I bid goodbye to Papa at the Boston Airport, I had this childlike instinct inside of me to follow him,” unbeknownst to the fact that it would be the last time she would be seeing him.
In her memoir “Hemant Karkare: A Daughter’s Memoir,” Jui wrote about the aftermath of his martyrdom, their last meeting, and the values he left behind, values by which she continues to live her life.
“The entire world calls him Braveheart. But for me, he was simply the man who was my father, who taught me how to live.”
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