We covet them, bathe them, and celebrate their birthdays with frosted bones. Dogs, in our domestic imagination, are soft things. Curled at our bed. Ever on our laps at the dining table. Melting us with those eyes.
But somewhere in the forests of Kishtwar, a German Shepherd named Tyson was crawling towards a terrorist hideout. Alone, ahead of everyone.
Bullets didn’t daunt him. This is the other dog. Rarely talk about. The one who doesn’t live a life of comfort. Instead, he trades the warmth of a home for a battle-field. In the Line of Control, he spends his waking hours. Same species but entirely different life.
India’s military dogs are trained from the age of eight weeks at the Remount Veterinary Corps in Meerut and the CRPF’s Dog Breeding and Training School in Taralu, Karnataka.
Their selection is based on breed, agility, and sharpness of senses. But what makes them truly deployable is something no trainer can manufacture. It is loyalty, the same loyalty that makes the family dog wait at the door every evening. Except here, it plays out under gunfire.
Staring at danger in the face
Handlers are paired with their dogs from the first day of training. They share tents, rations, and the particular silence of forward bases. According to a report, these dogs have been trained in combating terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir since the 1990s.
When Operation Trashi-I was launched in the Chhatroo belt of Kishtwar district, it was Tyson, a German Shepherd reportedly attached to the 2 Para Special Forces. He led the charge into the mudhouse where terrorists were hiding.
As he advanced, he was shot in the leg. He pressed forward anyway. His movement drew enemy fire, and his position revealed where the terrorists were. That intelligence gave the troops what they needed.
Top Jaish-e-Mohammed commander Saifullah and his associates were neutralised after 326 days of pursuit. The CRPF, which had trained Tyson, later said he had “stared danger in the face.”
Brother in arms
Zoom, a two-year-old Belgian Malinois from the 28 Army Dog Unit, reportedly did the same in 2022. During Operation Tangpawa in Anantnag district, he charged into dense forest toward a terrorist hideout and took two bullets — one to the chest, one to the hind leg. He still managed to pin down a terrorist before collapsing. Airlifted to Srinagar, he did not survive. His handler called him a brother in arms.
On Republic Day 2023, Zoom was awarded the Mention-in-Despatches, posthumously.
Phantom, a Belgian Malinois born May 25, 2020, served with the White Knight Corps in Jammu. Trained as an assault dog, he had graduated from the RVC and been posted in August 2022. On October 28, 2024, when terrorists ambushed an Army convoy in the Sunderbani sector of Akhnoor, Phantom charged forward and drew fire away from his unit. He was killed doing it. The eight-hour operation that followed reportedly ended with the terrorists eliminated.
The Army told a section of the media that his courage and loyalty would not be forgotten.
Axel, also a Belgian Malinois, died in July 2022 in Baramulla district during Operation Rakshak. He was two years old. He was leading a search in Wanigam Bala when he was shot from a concealed position. He had already alerted the troops. His unit honoured him with a wreath-laying ceremony, and like Zoom, he received the Mention-in-Despatches, posthumously. His handler later recalled how Axel used to chase balls during downtime. Nothing about that dog suggested what he would become under fire.
Kent, a female Labrador Retriever, was killed in September 2023 in Rajouri’s Narla village, shielding her handler from gunfire. Mansi, another Labrador, died in 2015 in Tangdhar, Kupwara, after detecting terrorists in the high-altitude jungle.
Part of the Army’s Tracker Dog unit, she pulled her handler, Sepoy Ahmed Bashir War of the 160 Territorial Army Battalion, toward the threat, was shot while barking at the infiltrators, and her handler, who fought on, also fell to enemy bullets, but only after reinforcements had reached them.
Even ahead of soldiers
AS Shekhawat, a soldier and dog-handler, described his dog’s last operation in a Doordarshan documentary called Dogs Never Die. He said his dog ran left to right, right to left, through spraying bullets, distracting the terrorists, never falling back even when fired upon.
He said the dog would sometimes go very close to the enemy, flinch when hit, and charge again. Always ahead of the soldiers. He said he could never forget that dog: that he could go anywhere, but would always stay alive in his heart.
Shekhawat has a new dog now. But a leash still hangs in his room.
Love, the reason
Dog lovers and activists have long argued that deploying animals in combat is indefensible. Dogs do not choose war. They do not understand borders or ideology or the difference between a terrorist and a hiker in the same jungle. What they understand is their handler. And it is that love: uncomplicated, unquestioning that sends them into the line of fire first.
Militaries continue to use them because no machine yet built can do what they do. As if often highlighted, their noses detect explosives buried deep underground or concealed in vehicles. Their speed flushes terrorists out of hideouts. Their loyalty holds even in the middle of a firefight, which is more than can be said for most things.
And still, when lives are counted, a dog’s life and a soldier’s are not weighed the same.
The names, the report mentions in a celebratory tone, deserve to be read aloud at least once: Max, Manu, Bindu, Galaxy, Rocket, Zanjeer, Laika, Roli, Roshni, Nawab, Phantom, Tom, Kent, Bobby, Garima, Raaso, Blaster, Magic, Alex, Root, Flora, Zoom, Axel, Gaurav, Ronnie, Mohit, Ida, Aman, Rocky, Cutie, Tiger, Veer, Stella, Jaguar, Gamble, Zeenat, Chadwik, Samrat, Mansi, Suresh, Cracker, Panther, Bravo.
We dress our dogs up and take pictures. These ones crawled into mudhouses and took bullets. Same animal. Entirely different ask.
When the operation ends and the guns go quiet, what is left is a leash on a wall. And the particular grief of a soldier who cannot explain to anyone why losing a dog feels like losing a brother.
Also Read: Cadaver Dogs Deployed in Telangana Tunnel Rescue Operation https://www.vibesofindia.com/cadaver-dogs-deployed-in-telangana-tunnel-rescue-operation/
