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| Hated in cities, rogue stray dogs pose a danger to infiltrators | | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Dec 23: The rogue stray dogs may be an unwanted lot and cause of nuisance in cities at night, but on borders, they are the forces' new found friends.Keeping their eyes peeled for every movement, they move in packs and act as watchdogs against infiltrating militants at night.They have proved to be useful in detecting suspicious movements on borders on many occasions.
"Stray dogs always bark at strangers, informing in advance about suspicious movements," said a senior police officer.
On Monday night, when infiltrating militants moved closer to the fence in Ramgarh sub-sector near here, troops, who were on the second and third line of defence, had let the street dogs enter their cordons to help them finding out a suspicious movement, if any.
Some time back, dogs raised an alarm when two to three militants, who had infiltrated into the Indian territory possibly from Ramgarh sector, passed through Chilla Danga village in Samba. The constant bark of dogs attracted the attention of some village hunters, who had laid an ambush in the bushes for wild animals who often venture into the territory during night hours.
Spotting infiltrators in the vicinity of the agitated dogs, Sonu - a hunter - had shot dead one foreign militant while the others, suspected to be guides, had fled.The officer said in the border areas of Jammu, these dogs were of great help in discovering suspicious movements.
Realising the utility of vagabond dogs, army has taken up the task of training them to seek their help during night hours to detect infiltration by the Pakistan-based militants.
Notwithstanding the fencing of every inch of land on borders with
Pakistan and presence of "adequate" number of troops to guard borders, militants find ways to sneak in. They nowadays mostly use nullahs and rivulets to cross over to this side.
A senior officer, posted in 10 Division of army at Akhnoor, said earlier they depended on pedigree dogs in CI operations, but now they were also training stray dogs for this job as they were found in abundance every where in the border villages.
He said the stray dogs always recognised troops and locals and never barked at them. However, whenever they detect the movement of strangers, they bark with full force, he added.
The officer said "these dogs learn quickly" and it was also economical to train them as they did not require special diet like the pedigrees.
These dogs have emerged as an important security tool for BSF, which guards International Border from Paharpur in Kathua to Chhamb in Akhnoor, and for army, which is deployed on the Line of Control (LoC) from Chhamb onwards.
Though BSF and army are equipped with sophisticated weapons and night
vision devices, infiltrators find gaps for them. Army feels that these gaps could be well filled by the vagabond dogs.
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