Zanjeer (7 January 1992 – 16 November 2000) was a Labrador Retriever who served as a

detection dog A detection dog or sniffer dog is a dog that is trained to use its senses to detect substances such as explosives, illegal drugs, wildlife scat, currency, blood, and contraband electronics such as illicit mobile phones. The sense most used by d ...

with the Bombay Police (later

Mumbai Police The Mumbai Police (Marathi: मुंबई पोलीस, IAST: ''Mumbaī Pulīs'', formerly ''Bombay Police'') is the police department of the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of Maharashtra Police and has the primary responsibiliti ...

) in

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

state of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Due to his impeccable service detecting many explosives and other weapons—in particular during the

1993 Bombay bombings The 1993 Bombay bombings were a series of 12 terrorist bombings that took place in Bombay, Maharashtra, on 12 March 1993. The single-day attacks resulted in 257 fatalities and 1,400 injuries. The attacks were coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, le ...

—he was honoured with a full state funeral.The Untouchables: Bombay Police after 26/11
at

New Delhi Television New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

, by Sreenivasan Jain; published 11 November 2009; retrieved 23 July 2013

Service

Zanjeer was trained at the Dog Training Centre of the Criminal Investigation Department at Shivaji Nagar in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

. He joined the Bombay Police Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad on 29 December 1992 and was handled by Ganesh Andale and V G Rajput. The name Zanjeer comes from the 1973

Hindi film Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

'' Zanjeer'' but he was also called "Ginger" because of his coat colour. Not including his contributions during the 1993 attacks, Zanjeer helped to recover 11 military bombs, 57 country-made bombs, 175

petrol bombs A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammab ...

, and 600

detonators A detonator, frequently a blasting cap, is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the last two being the most common. The commercial use of explosives uses electri ...

1993 Attacks

During the time of the

in March, Zanjeer helped avert at least three more attacks in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Mumbra Mumbra () is a suburb of Thane district in Western India in the state of Maharashtra, Mumbai extension and within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region area. It is administered by Thane Municipal Corporation. Mumbra is mostly famous for its Bombay sla ...

, and

Thane Thane (; also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city in Maharashtra, India. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven talukas ...

. The first incident happened on 15 March 1993 when Zanjeer alerted his handlers to a scooter bomb on Dhanji Street that contained

RDX RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (O2N2CH2)3. It is a white solid without smell or taste, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a n ...

explosives and gelatin sticks. He was then called to the scene of ten unclaimed suitcases outside the Siddhivinayak Temple where the dog detected three Type 56 rifles, five 9-mm pistols, and 200

grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s marked "Arges 69". Days later, Zanjeer investigated two suitcases at the

Zaveri Bazaar Zaveri Bazaar is a jewellery market and a major hub for B2B and B2C jewellery industry in Mumbai, India. Located at Bhuleshwar in South Mumbai, just north of Crawford Market, Zaveri Bazaar is a muddle of narrow lanes, dotted with hundreds of ...

that contained nine Type 56 rifles.

Death

Zanjeer developed bone cancer and died 16 November 2000 as a result. He was buried with full state honours.

References

{{Reflist 1992 animal births 2000 animal deaths Mumbai Police Individual dogs Individual animals in India Police dogs 1993 Bombay bombings

Service

1993 Attacks

Death

See also

References