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ITBP’s canine soldiers among personnel evacuated from Kabul
Maya (female Labrador), Roobie (female Belgian Malinois) and Bobby (male Doberman), were the first responders to any threat faced by the Indian diplomats in the last 3 years.
As India began repatriation of its personnel from Afghanistan, there were three special evacuees – Maya, Roobie and Bobby - highly trained sniffer dogs of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) who were to be brought back along with the embassy staff and 126 commandoes from the war-torn country following Taliban’s takeover.
The director-general SS Deswal categorically told the second-in-command, Ravikant Gautam, in-charge of the security at the Indian embassy in Kabul that “at no cost the K9 soldiers should be left behind”.
After all, Maya (female Labrador), Roobie (female Belgian Malinois) and Bobby (male Doberman), were the first responders to any threat faced by the Indian diplomats in the last three years from Pakistan-backed terror groups and thwarted many attempts.
As soon as it was learnt that the second Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 plane was on its way to Hamid Karzai airport for evacuating all the personnel on Tuesday, the handlers of Maya, Roobie and Bobby, made arrangements for the transportation of the canines who are all aged between 5 to 7 years. The first evacuation of around 40 staff of the Indian embassy was done on Monday.
The flight reached Delhi on Tuesday late afternoon, following which the dogs were taken to ITBP’s Chhawla camp in South West Delhi, which has a special dog kennel.
“They will rest and acclimatize with Indian weather for four to five weeks,” said an official at ITBP’s K9 unit.
During their three years’ deployment, the canine soldiers played an important role in the security of the Indian embassy, which was considered to be the second most vulnerable establishment in Afghanistan after American bases.
“They have been successfully carrying out anti-sabotage duties at Indian embassies at Kabul for past three years, checking every bag, parcel and article coming inside as well as sniffing any suspicious person. They detected several suspected IEDs (improvised explosive devices) during this time, saving lives of not only Indian diplomats and security personnel but also Afghan civilians working there for the Indian government,” said the officer cited above, without sharing specific details of the incidents.
Raised and trained at elite National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD) of ITBP at Bhanu in Panchkula, Maya, Roobie and Bobby will again be seen in action, this time for anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh.
The ITBP was deployed in Afghanistan in 2002 to secure the Indian embassies in Kabul and consulates at Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat.
Over 350 commandoes were responsible for the security of these assets and over the years, they thwarted many attacks on Indian diplomats.
While the four consulates were shut on different dates over the last two months due to the Taliban’s advance, the embassy in Kabul was functional till Tuesday.
One of the biggest attacks at the Indian embassy was carried out by Taliban’s Haqqani faction in association with Pakistan’s spy agency ISI on July 7, 2008, when a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla car tried to enter the premises of the embassy tailing the vehicle of Indian defence attaché Brigadier RD Mehta and Counsellor V Venkateshwara Rao. Two ITBP commandoes timely stopped the attacker’s car, saving many lives. The bombing killed 58 persons including Mehta, Rao and the two commandoes while 141 were wounded.
Similarly, there have been many attempts by terrorists to breach the Indian embassy and consulates at Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad and Herat over the years but all have been thwarted by the ITBP.
