Obama visit: Canine brigade to sniff out probable threats

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police has operationalised 30 special canine teams, including ‘strategic-depth reserve’ kept at an undisclosed location, to sanitise the entire stretch of Rajpath, India Gate Lawns, and sterilise the entire route to be taken by President Obama -- right from the time he lands in his Air Force One plane at the Delhi Airport and boards his armoured car, fondly called The Beast, when he travels from the airport to a five-star hotel and then to Rajpath. The entire area has been cordoned off by ITBP commands and even the flight of every single bird into the location is being tracked.

Well-trained Labradors, German Shepherds and Malinois are the dogs on whom the ITBP is seriously banking on. Previously, the paramilitary force has relied on the sniffing canines in the counter-insurgency grid and areas affected by Maoist extremism, where ITBP is the only squadron to suffer from “zero operational casualty” due to the early warnings on ambushes and detection of IEDs by their highly motivated and trained K9 Squads.

With Obama’s visit and security on top of their priority on January 26 , the ITBP will deploy the largest ever number of ‘crack explosive detection dog teams’ and ‘strike commandos.’

There have been inputs from IB and RAW about a possible terror strike during the Republic Day celebrations. Sophisticated remote-operated IEDs (improvised explosive device) might be placed at sensitive locations during the Jan 26 pageant and in the five-star hotel where Obama would stay.