DEHRADUN (TIP): Police horse Shaktiman, which was subjected to a brutal attack during a BJP protest here on Monday, had his injured hind leg amputated in an emergency life-saving surgery on March 17 even as a party worker was arrested.

The surgery was conducted at a veterinary hospital here by a team of doctors led by surgeon Feroze Khambatta, hours after Army doctors from Pune opined that one of the hind legs of the horse that was fractured will have to be amputated as the animal might lose its life by tomorrow due to spread of gangrene from the wound.

“The surgery has gone as planned,” Uttarakhand DGP B S Sidhu said tonight after a limb of the horse, which was still in pain and could not stand on its feet, was removed, three days after the attack that sparked an outrage and led to an FIR being filed against BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi.

“The surgery was basically necessitated by the fact that the blood supply has ceased to the portion of multiple fractures and it was essential for saving the life of the animal. We got the best possible surgeon in the country to perform the surgery and we hope he will be able to survive,” Sidhu said.

Stating that Shaktiman will take a month to recover from the surgery, Sidhu said that in the meantime he will be given temporary prosthetic aid in the form of artificial legs which will be tailor made to his specifications.