JAMMU, Jan 30 (1995): Two police sniffer dogs which stood to lose their jobs after last week’s Republic Day bomb blasts in this Kashmir city, avoided premature retirement by passing a test on Monday, the police said.
Buju and Ceasar sniffed out four pistols that had been buried by the police deep in the ground at the Maulana Azad Stadium in the presence of a team of federal detectives probing Thursday’s blasts, in which eight people were killed.
Police said the test was conducted to find out whether the two dogs retained their ability to detect arms and explosives.
Buju and Ceasar had gone around the stadium, venue of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Indian republic, to trace possible explosive plants ahead of the event.
But they found nothing, leading to speculation in the police department that the canines had lost their “detection power.”
Their success Monday showed the dogs’ sense of smell was intact that they had probably not been taken by their handlers to the spots where the bombs were planted, the police said.
The police said Buju and Caesar would keep their jobs, which were under threat following the blasts which occurred while Kashmir Governor K.V. Krishna Rao was delivering his Republic Day speech. Krishna Rao escaped unhurt.
Moslem militants fighting for an end to Indian rule over Kashmir are suspected to have carried out the explosions. Jammu is the winter capital of the Himalayan state.
