The 'Weirder' Side Of News!

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You can keep your fancy-pants computers, the sky's the limit with the latest espionage tech.

NO TIME TO FLY
Suspected Chinese spy pigeon detained for eight months is FREED after riddle over
‘secret message on its foot’ is solved

Spy pigeons have become an increasingly common sighting in India - with at least
three arrested in 2023

'A suspected spy pigeon has finally been freed after eight months in an Indian prison.
The alleged operative roused suspicion when it was found near a port in Mumbai in May
- with two rings bearing a message that "looked like Chinese" tied to its legs.


"No Mr Bond, I expect you to fly"

Police suspected the pigeon was spying on behalf of the Chinese government and took it
into custody, before sending it to Mumbai's animal hospital. After an eight-month-long
investigation, detectives revealed that the riddle on the bird's foot wasn't Chinese at all.

It has since emerged that the poor pigeon was actually an open-water racing bird from
Taiwan that had escaped and flown into India. Indian police immediately transferred the
falsely accused avian to the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals,
who have since released it back into the wild.

Both birds are still being investigated.

In 2020 a pigeon was accused of being a Pakistan spy when it was captured along the
border between Indian and Pakistani controlled parts of Kashmir. The suspected spy
had been painted pink and was carrying a ring with numbers on it around its foot.

At the time, senior Superintendent of Kathua Police, Shailendra Kumar Mishra, told
local media that the coded ring was cause for concern. He said that while birds have
no boundaries and often fly across international borders, migratory birds tend not to
have rings tethered to them.

In 2016, a pigeon was taken into custody after it was found flying bearing a threatening
note to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The bird was found in the northern state of Punjab,
where there had been deadly clashes between Pakistani and Indian militants.

The note was written in Urdu, saying "Modi, we're not the same people from 1971. Now,
each and every child is ready to fight against India". And, in 2015 another pigeon was
intercepted, this time in Manwal village two and a half miles from the border.

One officer told NDTV: "This is a sensitive area as it is just along International Border.
"Infiltration is also quite common along this route." Tensions between India's neighbours
have reached a boiling point, with clashes alongside the Indian-Pakistani border, and the
Indian-Chinese border, becoming increasingly more common...'

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