The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Commandos give all credit to Euro, Turbo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 23, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Other States

Other States - Orissa

Commandos give all credit to Euro, Turbo

Sib Kumar Das

The two sniffer dogs helped unearth huge cache of arms at Gasama hill

BEREHAMPUR: Dogs are the best friends of humans in jungles even in the hunt for Maoists and their looted arms.

This was proved when two sniffer dogs helped commandos of the SOG, the CRPF and the Greyhounds unearth huge cache of arms from the Gasama hill in Ganjam district during the continuing anti-naxal combing in the Gasama jungles on Friday morning.

It was the day of Euro and Turbo, two sniffer dogs brought from Cuttack to be part of the Operation Gasama of the paramilitary forces against Maoists now on the run after their attacks on police establishments and looting of arms in Nayagarh district last week.

New spot

M.V. Vijay, the commandant of the CRPF unit involved in the combing operation in Gasama jungles, also accepted that these two dogs had led the armed commandos to the new spot inside dense jungle on the Gasama hill where the Maoists had hidden this large haul of arms and ammunition. Most of them were buried under the ground. The dogs also tracked down the cap of a top Maoist leader involved in the attack. The cap bore three red stars.

The heavily armed para-military commandos were in need of high quality sniffer dogs for the intensive combing of the area, which is stewed with landmines planted by escaping naxals. The spot from where arms and ammunition were recovered in Friday was just 500 metres away from the spot from where arms and ammunitions were recovered on Monday. But more than 100 landmines had been planted in this area. The sniffer dogs played a major role in tracking down these landmines also.

The strategists of this large-scale anti-naxal operation are of the view that the due to fast reactive action by paramilitary forces, the naxals who are trying to escape may not be carrying large portion of looted arms with them. Except for the extreme modern automatic weapons, they must have tried to hide the rest of the arms and ammunition in the dense Gasama jungles in Ganjam, Kandhamal border. The sniffer dogs would play a major role in tracking down these hidden arms and to save the commandos from landmines planted by naxals in the coming days.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States