Thread by @vskochar

There is a busy bridge in Pune called Mhatre Bridge.
Everyday, it is traversed by thousands of people, but few know or care that the bridge is named after an unsung Indian hero, Shri Ravindra Hareshwar Mhatre.
He was brutally killed by Kashmiri terrorists at the age of 48 ….

while he was serving as a diplomat in the Indian Embassy in Birmingham UK.

Ravindra Mhatre was abducted and killed in an attempt to negotiate release of terrorist Maqbool Bhat of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.
Yes, the same Maqbool Bhat,

in whose name separatist slogans were raised in JNU.

Mhatre was kidnapped as he was stepping out of a baker's shop after picking up a birthday cake for his daughter.
Mhatre's daughter was only 14 when he disappeared forever from her life.

Her father's body was found three days later on a sidestreet in Birmingham.

The then PM Indira Gandhi refused to negotiate with the terrorists and Maqbool Bhat was hanged to death days after Mhatre's body was found.

A few months after that, Mrs. Gandhi visited Mhatre's ageing parents in Mumbai and allegedly said to them that on a personal level, she was guilty of taking their son away from them, but her hands were tied.

In an emotional story, Mhatre's daughter talks about how her father's murder changed her life forever.

The Kashmiri terrorists haven't forgotten Maqbul Bhat, but we Indians have forgotten Ravindra Mhatre.

Shared so we remember him again...

WRITTEN BY Rohit Vijay Mayadev