Recently, Axel, a two-year-old assault dog of the Indian Army, lost his life in a counter-terrorist operation in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla.
On Sunday, last respects were paid to the assault dog. The dog was hit around the head by three bullets and killed after being sent to sniff out the terrorist’s location. Axel was one of the 26 Army Dog Units. He was deployed in a counter-terrorist operation with 29 Rashtriya Rifles unit in the area of 10 Sector RR counter-insurgency force.
During a building clearance operation, initially, another Army dog ‘Balaji’ was sent for building intervention and sanitised the corridor inside. “After that, Axel was deployed. The dog went inside the first room and cleared it. As soon as it entered the second room, it was fired upon. After being hit, it showed some movement for 15 seconds and fell down,” the Army said.
The shootout continued between the troops and terrorists and once the operation was over, Axel’s body was retrieved. Post mortem was carried out at 54 Armed Force Veterinary Hospital which showed that besides the bullet entry and exit wounds, more than ten wounds were also there along with a fracture of the femur.
The Indian Army dogs are well trained in sniffing bombs, hunting down enemies, locating secret places and fetching evidence. The Army generally uses Labradors, German Shepherds and Belgian Shepherds, depending on the altitude and weather, besides the nature of assignment which may include routine patrol to explosives detection.
