ITBP's canine squad to secure India-Africa Forum Summit

New Delhi, Oct 25: A special dog squad of ITBP has been been pressed into service by security agencies to sanitise and conduct anti-sabotage checks at the venues for the India-Africa Forum Summit being held here from tomorrow.

The team, called 'K9', comprises Labradors, German Shepherds and Belgian 'Malinois' dogs and will secure the VVIP areas where the representatives of 54 African nations, including heads of state and government of around 40 countries and the powerful African Union, would be present during the four-day summit.

"The dog squad has been pressed in to conduct anti-sabotage checks and other security checks of areas which will be frequented by the heads of state and other delegates of the India-Africa summit. About 20 specially trained canines of the ITBP are spearheading this exercise along with few other sniffer dog squads drawn from other security agencies," official sources said.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police has been nominated as the national 'centre for excellence' for sniffer and police dogs' training. The border guarding forces' canine squad has been deployed for similar tasks in the past like the swearing-in ceremony of the Modi Cabinet last year, US President Barack Obama's visit in January, and for the International Yoga Day event at Rajpath on June 21. The summit will end on October 29.

PTI