Paris Olympics: Indian CAPF, special forces canine squad in France for venue security

Indian K9 teams with specially-trained Belgian Malinois dogs provide security cover for Paris Olympics, a first-ever collaboration with France.

Ten specially-trained Indian CAPF and special commando force dogs are in France to provide a counter-terrorist and anti-sabotage security cover to various venues of the Paris Olympics slated to open next week, official sources said on Wednesday.

The ten Indian K9 (canine) teams will undertake sniffing and patrolling duties at various venues that will hold events for the Paris Olympics. They have been given a special 10-week training for this first-ever kind of collaboration of canine squads between the Indian and the French government, a security officer told PTI.

The teams along with their handlers are drawn from the central armed police forces (CAPFs) like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force apart from the federal contingency commando force National Security Guard (NSG) and the Assam Rifles.

The dogs are Belgian Malinoises which undertake infantry patrol and anti-sabotage sniffer tasks to detect bombs, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and trouble makers in various internal security theatres of the country like anti-Naxal operations and counter-terrorist operations, he said.

A second officer said the handlers of these ten canine teams have undertaken refresher physical training apart from a special capsule of basics of the French language for the Olympics task.

The squad includes five-year-old CRPF canine Vast and three-year-old Denby.

They have been chosen for this task after stringent tests conducted at the CRPF dog breeding and training school located on Taralu near Bengaluru, Karnataka, the second officer said.