NEW DELHI: Army’s feisty assault canine Zoom lost its battle against the injuries on Thursday. Zoom was admitted at Armed Forces Veterinary Hospital, Srinagar on Monday after terrorists shot it twice. It was operated upon as it had a gunshot wound on the face and rear right leg.
An officer in Srinagar said, "Our Army dog Zoom that was under treatment at 54 AFVH died around 12 noon. Apparently, it was improving and responding well and looked fine till around 1145 when it suddenly started gasping and soon collapsed."
Zoom was tasked with clearing the house where terrorists were hiding in. The dog went inside the house and attacked the militants. During the operation, the canine was shot twice and suffered critical injuries. The dog, however, continued his task, which resulted in the killing of two terrorists.
Indian Army Condoled the passing away of its canine. The Northern Command in its tweet message said, "Army Commander Northern Command condoles the death of Assault Dog 'Zoom'. Injured in line of duty in operation at Tangpawa #Ananatnag, he finally breathed the last on 13 October 2022. A real hero in service to the #Nation."
Zoom, a Melanois or Belgian Shepherd was born in September 2020 and joined the Army’s 28 Army Dog Unit (ADU) and had service of eight months with him. The Army has 32 units out of which there are 19 dog units serving in the Northern Command. Each canine unit has 24 dogs of different specialities.
The Tangpawa, Anantnag operation was based on intelligence, launched by the joint team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, CRPF and Army on Sunday.
The surveillance had helped the forces to reach the target house, but the number of terrorists was not known.
But, with the readjustment of the cordon and intermittent exchange of fire throughout the night, the forces confirmed the presence of two terrorists in the house.
The Army on Monday said, “During the period, it was spotted by own technical assets that one of the terrorists was injured. At that time, the brave Zoom was sent into the target house to retrieve the weapons from terrorists and pull them out of hiding,” said an Army source.
Zoom approached the target stealthily and pounced upon the terrorist. “It was fired upon by the terrorists in hiding, injuring him seriously. However, he was successful in destabilizing the terrorists, who were then effectively neutralized by the precision fire of the troops.”
Assault dogs are trained to attack terrorists with rifles hiding in a room or running away after an incident. The assault dogs along with all other such canine soldiers deployed in different roles are proving to be an asset as has been found in the recent operations in Kashmir.