On This Day in 1991: Stjepan Mlakar Killed in Ambush
A police patrol from Orahovica was ambushed between Humljani and Pušina on August 11, 1991. Mlakar was killed, and two colleagues were wounded. Today marks the 35th anniversary of his death.
A police patrol from Orahovica was ambushed between Humljani and Pušina on August 11, 1991. Mlakar was killed, and two colleagues were wounded. Today marks the 35th anniversary of his death.
Today, August 11, 2026, marks 35 years since the death of Croatian police officer Stjepan Mlakar. He is recorded in history as the first casualty of the Homeland War in the Orahovica area, having lost his life in 1991 in an ambush on the road connecting Humljani and Pušina.
On that August 11, 1991, a three-member patrol from the Orahovica Police Station set out toward Slatinski Drenovac on routine duties. The vehicle carried Stjepan Mlakar and his colleagues Franjo Sterle and Josip Jurković. Shortly after 10 a.m., on the stretch between Humljani and Pušina, they were fired upon with automatic weapons from an ambush.
The attack proved fatal for Mlakar, while Sterle sustained serious injuries and Jurković lighter ones. The incident laid bare a harsh reality: Croatian police officers were no longer just keepers of public order. Across the country, they were the first line of defense for citizens and the state itself, often in situations where a routine patrol could instantly turn into a life-or-death struggle.
Mlakar's death is not merely a chapter in local history. His name symbolizes an entire generation of Croatian police officers and defenders who, in 1991, shouldered the burden of defense at a time when the outcome of the fight for independence was uncertain. They were the front line that met the aggression.
Three and a half decades later, at the site where he lost his life, tribute will once again be paid to him, his comrades, and all participants in the defense of that region. Such anniversaries remind us that behind every date stands a person, their service, and their sacrifice. Stjepan Mlakar went to duty that morning, as he did every day. He never returned home. Time passes, but the name of the first casualty of the Homeland War in the Orahovica area remains indelibly etched in the history of Croatia's defense.
