One of the youngest foot soldiers of the Indian army, Axel — a two year old assault dog, was cremated with full military honours a day after he made a supreme sacrifice in the line of duty during an encounter in Wanigam Bala area of Pattan in North Kashmir's Baramulla district.
A Lashkar-e- Tayyeba (LeT) terrorist identified as Irshad Ahmd Bhat of Pattan, Baramulla was killed while three security personnel including two jawans of the Indian army and one J&k police jawan received injuries during the encounter. According to police, "LeT terrorist was active since May 2022 in the area. 01 AK rifle, 2 magazines & 30 rounds were recovered from the encounter site".
On Saturday soon after the operation was launched in the area, two sniffer dogs from the 26 Army Dog unit were deployed at the encounter site to assist the soldiers.
After making preliminary assessment of the general area an obedient Axel was tasked by his trainer to track down the exact location of hiding terrorists inside one of the houses in the thickly populated area.
Following the command of his trainer Axel went inside the building. As he was conducting general searches Axel was hit by a 'barrage of bullets' fired by a hiding terrorist from inside one of the rooms.
According to initial reports, Axel was hit around the head by three bullets. He died on the spot.The dead body of the voiceless soldier was retrieved after a long gap of about five hours. His trainer sobbed after recovering the dead body. Local reports claimed, "he spread a sheet on the roadside and kept him there. He kept patting the fellow soldier but failed to revive him". This was the second operational duty assigned to Axel ever since he was deployed with 29 Rashtriya Rifles units in the area of 10 Sector RR counter-insurgency forces. Recently, he took part in another operation in the Sopore area. Axel belonged to the Belgian Malinois breed which excels in detecting drugs, bomb, gas detection, routine search and rescue; tracking etc.
Acknowledging the supreme sacrifice of the assault canine, Army commander of the Udhampur based Northern command headquarters in a tweet said, "Assault Dog 'Axel' made the supreme sacrifice in an operation at Pattan on 30 July 2022. The army commander labeled Axel a real hero in service to the Nation".
Another senior army officer, who led the 2016 surgical strike, Lt Gen Satish Dua (Retd) in his condolence message wrote, "Army Dog 'Axel' makes the supreme sacrifice during an operation in J&K. Axel charged into the room where terrorist hid himself; he sadly got hit, but saved the lives of soldiers who'd have gone in. Terrorist was neutralised". KJS Dhillon, former Director General Defence Intelligence Agency, who also served as GOC Chinar Corps, saluted the valour of Axel while paying rich tributes to the voiceless warrior. "Salute Axel … You did your duty well. Jai Hind."Thank you for your Service Axel".
Chinar Corps also saluted the valour & sacrifice of Army Dog Axel. Large number of netizens also showered praises and feted the sacrifice of Axel in the line of duty.
In the last over three decades, trained canines have performed their duties and sacrificed their lives alongside footsoldiers of the Indian army. Their contributions have been acknowledged by the top brass of the Indian army by way of presenting them commendation cards and other awards. These canines have been performing the most crucial duty of road opening party where they are deployed with the soldiers to detect any presence of explosives, IED's to prevent any targeted strike on security convoys. These dogs are also deployed for other duties such as patrolling along the line of control to keep wild animals at bay, sniffing drugs during frisking duties etc.