Kishtwar man travels 230 km to buy retired police dog

Dinesh Manhotra
Tribune News Service
Jammu, January 18

Braving hostile weather, Manzoor Ahmed Hafiz came all the way from Kishtwar to purchase a retired police dog, Brut, who was put on a public auction on Friday in the Sunjwan area here.

“It is due to my love and affection for these dogs that I covered a distance of nearly 230 km to attend the auction,” Hafiz said, adding, “People should come forward to purchase retired dogs from the police squad to recognise their services towards society.”

“It is not the question what price I paid for the dog, the real issue is to give recognition to the services rendered by these canines to the police department,” Hafiz said, adding that he had also purchased three retired police dogs earlier.

It was all due to Hafiz’s love for these dogs that other bidders allowed him to purchase Brut at a low price of Rs 2,200. “He has already purchased three dogs of the police department so he will take care of Brut better than others,” a bidder said.

Although the zonal headquarters of the Crime Branch had issued a public notification for the auction of the two highly-trained Labradors — Brut and Raja — the latter could not be auctioned due to injuries. “Raja received minor injuries during a routine exercise on Thursday evening, so only Brut was auctioned on Friday,” an officer said, adding, “a notification regarding the auction of Raja will be reissued very soon”.

As reported earlier, Brut and Raja had attained their age of retirement on January 11 after rendering eight years of service to the J&K Police. While Brut is skilled at detecting explosives, Raja is an expert in tracking criminals.

Owns 3 pets already 

It was all due to Manzoor Ahmed Hafiz’s love for the dogs that other bidders allowed him to purchase Brut at a low price of Rs 2,200. “He has already purchased three dogs of the police department so he will take care of Brut better than others,” a bidder said.