India releases pigeon accused of spying for China

[Lee]

Not sure if this satire or not.

 

Quote

 

NEW DELHI–A pigeon that spent eight months in Indian police custody has been released after it was finally cleared of being a suspected Chinese spy.

The bird was caught at a port in the financial capital Mumbai with “messages written in a Chinese-like script” on its wings, the Times of India newspaper reported.

“Initially, the police had registered a case of spying against the bird, but after completing their inquiry, they dropped the charge,” the report added.

The unnamed bird was held under lock and key at a city hospital while police carried out an investigation.

That probe took an “astonishing eight months”, the India office of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in a Thursday statement.

PETA India said police had granted “formal permission for the hospital to release the pigeon” on Wednesday.

Local media reports said the bird fluttered away in good health.

The pigeon is the latest of several detained by Indian authorities on suspicion of espionage.

Border security officers took a pigeon into custody in 2016 after it was found carrying a threatening message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi close to India’s border with arch-rival Pakistan.

Another pigeon was held under armed guard in 2010 after it was found in the same region with a ring around its foot and a Pakistani phone number and address stamped on its body in red ink.

Officials in that case directed that no one should be allowed to visit the pigeon, which police said may have been on a “special mission of spying”.

 

 

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[JJReyes]

3 hours ago, Lee said:

Another pigeon was held under armed guard in 2010 after it was found in the same region with a ring around its foot and a Pakistani phone number and address stamped on its body in red ink.

Could be a homing pigeon aficionado in Pakistan.  The ring might be an aluminum band with a serial number identifying the bird's owner.  The phone number and address stamp are in the event the bird is wounded or shot and killed.  Call the owner.  The club members send their birds as a group sometimes hundreds of miles away to be simultaneously released.   The trap door at the home cage informs the owner when a bird returns and it records the time, which is matched with the serial number.  Fastest return is the winner.  Sometimes the bird gets lost.  This could be the reason it was found "spying" in India.  

Footnote.  One well known aficionado of this sport is the former boxer, Mike Tyson.  

 

[Jack Peterson]

10 minutes ago, JJReyes said:

Could be a homing pigeon aficionado in Pakistan. 

 Hmm with 7 countries bordering India why would you think Pakistan? the one country India would be most unlikely to return it too 

[JJReyes]

A follow-up on the above story explains the bird was released after Indian authorities learned it came from Taiwan, not China.  However, the authorities failed to record the serial numbers on the band which could have identified the rightful owner.  The bird would be welcomed back to Taiwan as a national hero.  Instead, the cage was opened, and it flew away.

[Lee]

15 hours ago, Lee said:

A pigeon that spent eight months in Indian police custody has been released after it was finally cleared of being a suspected Chinese spy.

This first statement is what baffled me--------how does a pigeon spy on anybody or anything?

[hk blues]

3 hours ago, Lee said:

This first statement is what baffled me--------how does a pigeon spy on anybody or anything?

I suspect it's not so much an actual belief the pigeon was a spy as much as the possibility it may have some technology implanted. Almost certainly nonsense, of course, but that's my guess.

[JJReyes]

2 hours ago, hk blues said:

5 hours ago, Lee said:

This first statement is what baffled me--------how does a pigeon spy on anybody or anything?

I suspect it's not so much an actual belief the pigeon was a spy as much as the possibility it may have some technology implanted. Almost certainly nonsense, of course, but that's my guess.

Maybe someone should ask Elon Musk if he has been implanting chips on birds.  

Homing pigeons as message carriers were popular during WW1 and WW2.  Advances in telecommunication made them obsolete.  Perhaps the Indian government is concerned about a revival.

[Possum]

19 minutes ago, JJReyes said:

Homing pigeons as message carriers were popular during WW1 and WW2.  Advances in telecommunication made them obsolete.  Perhaps the Indian government is concerned about a revival.

In the 1980s there was a war game by the US military in the Middle East, the results of which were kept away from the press. The commanders of the pretend middle east military could have used any tools in the US military arsenal, they opted to use almost no electronic communication, they used personal messengers and pigeons. Transported weapons on pickup trucks and donkeys. Dressed as the locals did. The war game was called off early as they were embarrassing their high tech conventional counterparts. Many lessons learned.

[Snowy79]

Just saying.