Jharkhand police to let the dogs out to disperse mobs

Ranchi, Nov 13 (IANS) Dispersing protesters by baton charge, water cannons and tear gas may be a thing of the past. The Jharkhand police will now be using dogs to chase protesters.

The police has trained a special dog squad to disperse mobs, a police official said.

A dog squad show for this purpose was displayed in a police meet that concluded Wednesday.

There are 33 dogs - including eight German shepherds and 10 labradors - in the squad that comes under the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the police.

The dogs were trained in Gwalior, said the official.

'The latest training of dog squad was how to tackle the mob fury. Sometime, mob is not controlled by the batons and water cannon. In special circumstances the dogs could be used to disperse the mobs,' the police official told IANS.

'The dogs tied with chains will chase the agitators. The precaution is that each dog will be controlled by a constable,' he said.

The dog squad would be used only when district administration passed an order.