RAIPUR: A sniffer dog of the premier central paramilitary force CRPF was killed after it unexpectedly hit the pressure IED (improvised explosive device) planted by the outlawed CPI (Maoist) in restive Bijapur district, south Chhattisgarh.
Following the incident the dog named ‘Pluto’ was cited as a ‘martyr’ (Shaheed) on the CRPF’s twitter handle. He was the second “Osama Hunter” to have been slain during operations in athe span of a week.
The first canine 'Aminika' was killed on January 18 in Jharkhand's Latehar. Both dogs were two of the top class battle-hardened 'Belgian Malinois' infantry patrol canines of the country's largest paramilitary force. Both the slain dogs were course toppers at their training academy at Taralu near Bengaluru.
The IED blast occurred at Murdanda village in Basaguda about 350 km south of Raipur when the "trained" dog, part of a patrolling team of CRPF’s 229 battalion was out on a search operation in Bijapur.
According to available information, the dog succeeded in sniffing out the IED but it abruptly exploded when it accidentally pressed the planted explosive. The dog handler however was not injured in the blast. According to the CRPF officials, it is rare for a sniffer dog to get killed this way.
No specific reason was officially given regarding the incident but experts believe that either the dog might not have been fully trained for the security purpose or perhaps the dog handler who maintained it was not alert or good enough.
“The trained sniffer dogs almost always use its (sic) sense of smell to detect substances like explosives (ammonium nitrate) or drugs. This incident came as a surprise since the well-trained sniffer dogs (sic) can easily get to know about the hidden explosives”, a dog expert trainer of the dog squad, said on a condition of anonymity.
After losing two of its highly-trained and ferocious canines, popularly known as 'Osama hunters', to Naxal triggered IED blasts in a week's time, an alarmed CRPF has asked field units to "study" reasons that led to these losses and undertake new tactical steps to thwart Maoist attempts to target the four-legged soldiers.
CRPF officials, while talking about the two recent setbacks, said these dogs are put under rigorous training for 24-weeks in sniffing, tracking and attack tactics and it is "near to impossible" that they will miss a hidden IED or bomb beneath the muddy earth.
"It is a loss for the force as these four-legged soldiers have saved numerous troops' lives in the battle zone especially in Naxal areas and were very dear to us. We are looking at what exactly caused these incidents and I have
asked my field units to study the blasts. If it requires adopting certain different tactical steps to be undertaken, we will do that," CRPF Director General K Durga Prasad said.
The breed known as 'Belgian Malinois' were inducted in the Indian security forces a few years ago based on their excellent track record of sniffing out hidden bombs and danger in enemy territory.
These dogs first shot to international fame after they assisted the elite US Navy SEALs in sniffing out Osama bin Laden from his safe haven in Pakistan in 2011 and have since been famously called 'Osama hunters'.
The importance of these 'Belgian Malinois' dogs can be ascertained from the fact that forces like CRPF, ITBP and BSF now have over 200 such canines and every battalion operating in Naxal areas has one dog and patrols have been instructed to let the dog lead, in order to save them from threats.
A dog instructor said that once these dogs started saving troops lives and giving them an edge in Naxal operations, they were labelled as 'paltan hi shaan, hamara shvaan' (A dog is the units' honour) and the best of the facilities were accorded to them including their handlers.
A number of siblings of 'Aminika' and 'Pluto' in various forces have been decorated with the DGs commendation discs for good work in the past even as CRPF accords them the badge of putting 'Shaheed' before their names, on par with a similar honour for troops who lay down their lives in the line of
duty.
Both the CRPF canines were cremated with full force honours and plans are afoot to erect memorials at their respective battalion headquarters.