Two 'Osama hunters' killed in a week; CRPF orders new tactical steps

NEW DELHI: After losing two of its highly-trained and ferocious canines, famed as the ' Osama hunters', to Naxal triggered IED blasts in a week's time, an alarmed CRPF has asked its field units to "study" reasons that led to these losses and undertake new tactical steps to thwart Maoists attempts to target the four-legged soldiers.

Two back-to-back incidents, on January 18 in Jharkhand's Latehar and yesterday in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur, claimed the lives of ' Aminika' and ' Pluto', two of the top class battle-hardened 'Belgian Malinois' infantry patrol canines of the country's largest paramilitary force.

Both the dogs were out with Central Reserve Police Force patrol parties in the Naxal heartland when cleverly hidden Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts claimed their lives.

The 'Belgian Malinois' breed of dogs have been inducted in Indian security forces few years back based on their excellent track record of sniffing out hidden bombs and danger in the 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 were since then famously called as the 'Osama hunters'.

"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 told PTI.

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 an hidden IED or bomb beneath the muddy earth.

"These dogs have saved numerous lives and personnel from getting maimed or killed after they sniffed in-time the hidden IEDs or Maoists laying an ambush. An analysis is being done if the Naxals have improvised on some techniques to outsmart these dogs even.

"As these dogs are highly trained and smart as compared to any breed , there have been no incidents in the past when they could have been killed in operations. These are the first two deaths," they said.