JOIN USJustice P B Sawant, Special Public Prosecutor in the 26/11 trial Ujjwal Nikam and family members of the martyrs attended the unveiling ceremony here along with Chairman of the Kisan Veer Cooperative sugar Factory, Madan Bhosale, who has set up the memorial in the factory premises.
Smriti Udyan
Vinita Kamte, Smita Salaskar and Vandana — daughter of Tukaram Ombale — lauded Bhosale and the factory for setting up a ‘permanent tribute’ to the sacrifice of their loved ones.
The memorial, called Shaheed Smriti Udyan, comprises about 2,300 flower plants and also 18 large trees-one each for the 26/11 martyrs. It has a 28-feet-long and 18-feet high fibre plate, erected on a 60 feet by 40 feet map of Maharashtra. The plate has carvings of the martyrs’ faces.
Of the 18 security personnel killed during the Mumbai terror attacks, five were from Satara district.
They included Ombale, constable Jaywant Dudhe-Patil, Police Sub-inspector Bapurao Durgude, Assistant Sub Inspector Balasaheb Bhosale and police constable Ambadas Pawar. Ombale, who lost his life but helped nab Ajmal Kasab alive, was a native of Kedambe village in Jawali taluka.
The road adjoining the memorial, has been named after police officer Chandrashekhar Sanjay Deshmukh who was killed in Naxal attack in Gadchiroli district last year. He hailed from Dhom in Wai tehsil of Satara district.
“Our factory was the first organisation in the state to give Rs One lakh each to the families of martyrs from Satara killed in the 26/11 attack,” Bhosale said.
Besides the five martyrs from Satara, the memorial’s fibre plate also has images of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Bhosale said.