KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Rival armies in India and Pakistan are in such a high alert that they are not in a position to spear the birds. Post-Uri, there are at least two pigeons who are in formal custody, Wall Street Journal reported.
“One of the pigeons, captured Sunday by a member of India’s Border Security Force in the northern state of Punjab, was carrying a note in Urdu—a language widely spoken in Pakistan—that was tied with a string to one of its feet, the report by Niharika Mandhana said. It read: “Each and every child is ready to fight India,” a message, police told the Journal, was from Lashkar-e-Taiba to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The grey “avian infiltrator”, the Journal said, was shown by various TV channels “peering from between the thick bars of a maximum-security cage surrounded by three uniformed officers”.
The newspaper website said that another pigeon was apprehended 10 days ago also in Punjab. This bird with his tail feathers stained blue was stamped with an 11-digit number. The police, the report said, got a Muslim cleric to decipher the witting and it suggested it was “days of the week”. To ensure the bird was not what it seemed, the police got took a precaution and got it x-rayed locally.
“The matter might have ended there, but a precautionary X-ray at a local clinic revealed some unusual spots in the bird’s abdomen,” the report said. “Two more X-rays followed, but Mr Singh said authorities still aren’t sure if there is anything nefarious.”
The report further said that in order to understand the x-ray better, the police have consulted army but the mystery is not settled yet. The bird, currently housed in a local police station is being taken “to a lab in a city 80 miles away for further investigation this week.”
But this is not for the first time that the security set up in India has started chasing apparently innocuous targets like birds. “Last year, a pigeon was discovered with a mysterious number imprinted on its feathers, raising fears of espionage—a top concern among authorities of both countries,” the newspaper said. “But scans revealed no cameras, transmitters or electronic devices, so the pigeon was released.”
However, the senior officers in the police have understood that these are no serious threats and the ink stains could be the identity marks as lot of people rear homing pigeons on both sides of the border. Top officers have told the report that it was the work of “frustrated minds”.
In December 2011, Pakistani security set up involved the wildlife officials to arrest a monkey that had crossed the country. It was later taken to Bahalwalpur zoo and named Bobby, Washington Post had reported.
