BANGALORE: Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan of Bangalore, the National Security Guard (NSG) Commando who was killed on Friday while encountering terrorists at the Taj Hotel in the early hours of Friday, was a native of Cheruvannur, Kerala. He was commissioned on June 12, 1999 from the National Defence Academy, Pune to the 7 Bihar Regiment before joining in the country’s elite security team, the NSG on January 20, 2007.
The officer also had extensive exposure to counter insurgency operations having served in Jammu and Kashmir on two tenures.
He was posted at NSG HQ in Manesar in Haryana before he arrived at Mumbai to flush out terrorists.
Maj Unnikrishnan, who is survived by his parents studied, at St Frank Anthony Public School before joining the NDA.
NSG Director General J K Dutt said the gallant officer, as Team Commander of the 51 SAG, was employed to clear the Taj and he led from the front and engaged the terrorists in a fierce gunfight.
The slain officers father Unnikrishnan Nair, a former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official said he last spoke to him on November 26 night before his son headed for Mumbai for the operation.
“He told me to watch the television, when asked about the operation,” said an emotional Nair.
He added that Maj Unnikrishnan had booked his air tickets on December 17 to attend his childhood friend’s wedding in his native Kerala and would return to duty on December 30.‘‘For me, it is a personal loss as I have lost my only son,” he said.
Cremation today at 11 am
The Officer’s body arrived on Friday night. It will be taken to the Command Hospital on Airport Road before it is brought to his residence for the public to pay homage on Saturday morning. The cremation is expected to take place at 11 am on Saturday at the Hebbal Crematorium.
A pall of gloom hung around the house at Akash Vihar, ISRO Layout in Yelahanka as friends and family mourned Maj Unnikrishnan’s demise.
A relative said that Unnikrishnan wanted to join the army but that his father was reluctant to let him go.