The CRPF, in a rare instance, has decided to accord one of its highest service honours to an infantry patrol dog whose alacrity saved lives of many troops during an anti-Naxal operation in Odisha.
The female canine 'Juliet', is a Belgian Shepherd 'Malinois' and is the cousin of the same breed of canines which is reported to have assisted the elite US Navy Seals in sniffing out Osama bin Laden from his safe haven in Pakistan in May 2011.
CRPF chief Dilip Trivedi announced a Director General (DG) Commendation Disc, usually awarded to serving personnel and officers for either accomplishing a dare-devil task or rendering exceptional service, to Juliet in order to honour the silent soldier of the force.
The Indian forces inducted these dogs for the first time in 2011 to aid security personnel undertaking anti-Naxal operations and special offensive tasks.
The latest episode occurred yesterday when 'Juliet' was out for an anti-Naxal duty in the jungles of Keonjhar district of Odisha along with the Central Reserve Police Force troops.
After about 8-kms of patrol, a senior official said, the squad reached the notorious 'Sal Ghati' under Daitri police station area in the district after which the highly-trained Juliet diligently began sniffing a mound of earth lying near the dirt track.
Her handler, Constable Zale Singh, goaded her further and she promptly dug out the electric wires of a hidden 20-kg Improvised Explosive Device (IED) buried 2-feet deep, which was also fitted with detonators and torch cells for activation.
The patrol squad was immediately alerted by the scout officer, the official said, after which the IED was sanitised and the bomb disposal team was called in which crippled the deadly bomb which, once activated, would have claimed many lives.
The force, thick in anti-Maoist operations, has inducted close to 108 'Malinois' dogs in its ranks over the last two years and deployed them with patrol squads which has produced good results, the official said.
The first batch of seven 'Malinois' dogs was trained by the specialised trainers of the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police in the rough terrains of the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border in 2011.
The 'Malinois' has the best combination of sharp smell, endurance, speed, intelligence and adaptability to the harsh Indian climate and have a remarkable ability to sniff out IEDs and deep hidden landmines, thereby saving the lives of many troops. Their services are also taken by the US and NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan.
