50 dogs ready to sniff out crimes

Moinabad: The services of 50 sniffer dogs of different breeds, trained by the Intelligence Training Academy (ITA), at Moinabad, would be utilised to detect explosives and narcotics, track suspects and for guarding. The 20th batch of Basic Induction Course for Canines and Canine Handlers was held at the academy in the city on Tuesday.

Speaking at the event, the DGP of Telangana police, M Mahender Reddy, said that, the role of police Jagilas (Sniffer dogs) is crucial in counterterrorism, criminal investigations, peacekeeping investigations and security of dignitaries in the country. He noted, "Many complex cases were solved with the help of Jagilas and they have proved to be most useful in Naxal hit areas as they detect the landmines and save the lives of our officers. The ITA training center has been working relentlessly to provide high quality and standardised training to the canines of not only Telangana but also to states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand"

According to an official release, the training was imparted to canines of five different breeds, i.e., Labrador, German Shepherd, Belgian-Malinois, Golden Retriever and Cocker-Spaniel totaling 50 canines and 80 canine handlers/spare handlers for eight months. The performance of the canines and their handlers was evaluated through tests on a monthly basis, while agility test of the canines was conducted on daily basis. If any canine showed mediocre performance, extra care was taken by the instructors to improve them. Mock drills were conducted so that the dogs could have a real time experience in sniffing activities at public places like bus stations, railway stations and airports.

So far, 669 canines and 965 handlers/spare handlers have been trained in this institute since 2004. The dogs are being widely used for anti-sabotage checks during VIP/VVIP visits, attending bomb threat calls and in crime investigation.