Mumbai, Nov 26 (IANS): Not only humans, but man's best friend also contributed in a big way to saving lives of hundreds of innocent people during and after the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike.

The Mumbai Police had deployed its Dog Squad in several of the sites targeted by the 10 armed Pakistani terrorists, including Ajmal Amir Kasab who was the only one to be caught alive, during those 60 hours.

The well-trained canines faithfully and fearlessly went around sniffing for deadly explosives, bombs, grenades and other dangerous materials to come up trumps at several locations for even after the terror attack was dealt with, unknown lethal risks remained.

While police dog Prince helped recover 17 grenades and four live bombs, Max detected 8 kg RDX, and 29 detonators near the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace besides another 25 grenades in the hotel's lobby area.

Sultan found RDX and other explosives, Tiger detected bombs in Colaba and Caesar helped seize hand grenades at the Chabad House and 8 kgs RDX at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus during those turbulent 3 days.

While Prince passed away in November 2014, Max, Sultan, Tiger and Ceasar expired in April, June, July and October 2016, respectively.

A majority of them had joined the Mumbai Police Dog Squad when they were mere puppies of 3-4 months, underwent a rigorous training to detect various crimes besides hunting out explosives, bombs and other dangerous substances before being inducted into active policing service.

Much admired and rewarded for their exemplary services to the Mumbai Police, all the 'canine investigators' were officially retired to a farmhouse of animal lover Fizzah Shah at Virar in Palghar where they spent their last days happily and peacefully.

On the 12th anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks, Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda on Thursday shared a small video highlighting the brave dogs, their services and other contributions which elicited a good response on social media.