New Delhi: A new set of specially trained
canines have been raised by security forces to go beyond their
sniffing skills and help them in stealthily planting IEDs in
terrorist hideouts and even stealing their weapons.
The canines raised by Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)
are being hailed as the first such squad in any force
including the army and are called Bomb Drop Dog (BDD) and
Weapon Retrieval Dog (WRD).
"The task of the BDD dog is to quietly place a remote
controlled Improvised Explosive Device (IED) near the
terrorist hideout when our troops are pinned down by their
fire. The bomb is then remotely detonated inflicting damage on
the terrorists," a senior ITBP officer said.
The WRD dog is used for cleaning up operations and
retrieval of weapons of militants before the troops get an
all-clear signal to enter the suspected hideout, the officer
said.
The canines, all labradors, have been trained and raised
by the ITBP National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD) near
Chandigarh which is known for delivering some very sharp dogs
to various police and anti-terror squads in the country and
has been marked as a centre for excellence for this job.
A lot of effort has gone in training these dogs and they
will prove an asset for security forces operating in
anti-naxal and counter-insurgency areas, the officer said.
The dogs have recently been brought to the national
capital where they will publicly display their skills for the
first time during the ITBP raising day on October 24 here.
The NTCD team which has trained these dogs was recently
decorated with the Director General (DG) insignia for this
maiden effort.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, October 20, 2011, 16:40