Hyderabad: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has got four police dogs to detect narcotics and explosives.

The dogs have been acquired especially for the purpose after ganja was found during vehicle checking at the Alipiri checkpost. Out of the 48 dogs that passed out from the Intelligence Security Wing’s dog training academy on Thursday at Moinabad in Cyberabad, 23 were allotted to AP, 18 to Telangana, four to TTD and three to Arunachal Pradesh. Along with the dogs, 82 handlers also passed out.

The elite anti-terror commandos of AP OCTOPUS have also got the Belgian Malinois assault dogs supposed to be one of the world’s most ferocious dog breeds which are trained to attack terror suspects. The dogs have also been trained to perform air drops from helicopters. On Thursday, the dogs exhibited their skills in several scenarios like how to counter bus hijackers etc.

Intelligence security wing inspector-general of police Mahesh Murlaidhar Bhagwat said, “There are five varieties of dogs Labradors, German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Cocker Spaniels and Golden Retrievers. Of the four dogs for TTD, one is for detection of narcotics and the other three are for explosive detection. There have been some instances of ganja and liquor bottles found at the Alipiri checkpost and the dogs will help stop that.”

He added, “Four dogs two Belgian Malinois and two German Shepherds trained as assault dogs, have been allotted to the OCTOPUS. During the passing of canines they exhibited various skills.”

Like the US Marines commando operation to kill Osama bin Laden, our dogs also jumped from a height in a similar exercise while hanging to a rope. A bus hijack simulation was also carried out wherein assault dogs were used to counter the terrorists.”

“The dogs have been trained not to accepted food from anyone else except the handlers and Bolo drill was also practiced wherein the dogs bark only based on instructions of the handlers, that too in specific rhythm.”

The academy have trained dogs for Goa, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, the CRPF, the CISF and GMR Shamshabad airport security and AP Forest department earlier.