Pune: A fresh input related to the November 26 terror attacks has brought to the fore an unsung hero who fell victim at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station but not before doing his bit as the Home Guard volunteer.

The 35-year-old Mukesh Jadhav was on the baggage inspection duty on the fateful night when the terrorists entered the railway station from the gate near Parcel department. He was the first man in uniform faced by the attackers.

They shot at him and proceeded further to the terminus.

Mukesh did not have a rifle to retaliate but he walked with grit around 50 yards bleeding profusely and alerted Railway Police who set the alarm bells ringing, B R Raut, Deputy Commandant General, Home Guard, Maharashtra, told PTI today.

Though trained to handle weapons in the civil defence training, Home Guards are not equipped with guns by the state governments which deploy them to assist police at sensitive places due to shortage of uniformed manpower.

It was after the 2006 bomb blasts in Mumbai's local trains that the state government had decided to beef up security at various railway stations with the deployment of the Home Guard, the first line of Civil Defence.

Mumbai has around 5,000 Home Guard personnel out of an estimated 43,000 volunteers, Raut said.

Mukesh was one of the 300 Home Guard assigned to assist the Railway Police at the CST.
Source : PTI