Unfaltering vigil, rounds around the Brahmaputra Guest House – Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s residence, and routine inspection of all the nine vehicles of CM carcade, ‘Twister’ did his job with tooth, nail and nose quite literally.
Trained at the Tekanpur-based Border Security Force Academy’s National Training Center for Dogs in Madhya Pradesh, Twister, a black Labrador, was an integral part of the chief minister’s Z+ category security since February 2017 right until recently when it showed signs of “fatigue”.
Earlier, The Assam Tribune reported regarding the health issues that the dog was facing. “Twister refused to take food recently. The veterinary doctors said that it has lost appetite. We still don’t know his ailments and are waiting for laboratory reports,” stated the report.
Twister was appointed to Sonowal's security force when the CM was awarded Z+ security cover last year after the Home Ministry conducted a threat perception.
Twister is one of the 32 guard dogs trained from the institute that are serving the Indian Government right now. It has gone through a 24 week long rigorous training consisting of trainings on explosive, narcotic and poison examination.
A source in the Crime Investigation Department that handles the Assam police kennel and dog training centre said the 7-year-old canine is the most well trained dog in the state.
“Not just in a state, but even in the entire country, there aren’t many NTCD trained guard dogs. A guard dog is trained specially for such high profile security covers and Assam has just this one. While various ranks are being given nationwide to its canines, here in Assam Police, we don’t give any ranks, but Twister’s pay grade is equivalent to that of a lieutenant. A total of Rs 32,000 monthly is being allotted for food and medicines for Twister,” the source said.
“The symptoms of Twister are those that come associated with age, but it is not his age to retire yet,” the source added.
The official age of a canine in any security post is 8 years. However, there are a lot of dogs in the Assam Police serving after the retirement age due to lack of replacements.