Tag: Pigeon

  • Suspected Chinese spy pigeon released by India after 8 months of investigation

    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.

    In 2020, police in Indian-controlled Kashmir released a pigeon belonging to a Pakistani fisherman after a probe found that the bird, which had flown across the heavily militarized border between the nuclear-armed nations, was not a spy.

  • Driver arrested for running over pigeon

    Driver arrested for running over pigeon

    A Tokyo taxi driver was arrested for deliberately driving into a flock of pigeons and killing one, police said Tuesday, reportedly because he was angry that the birds were on the road.

    Atsushi Ozawa, 50, “used his car to kill a common pigeon, which is not a game animal”, in the Japanese capital last month, and was arrested on Sunday for violating wildlife protection laws, a Tokyo police spokesman told AFP.

    Ozawa sped off from a traffic light when it turned green, ploughing his taxi into the bevy of birds at a speed of 60 kilometres (37 miles) per hour, local media said.

    The sound of the engine reportedly prompted a surprised passer-by to report the incident.

    Tokyo police had a veterinarian perform a post-mortem on the hapless pigeon and determined its cause of death as traumatic shock, according to local media.

    “Roads belong to humans, so pigeons should have dodged out of the way,” Ozawa was quoted by local media as telling investigators.

    Police called his behaviour “highly malicious” for a professional driver, before deciding to go ahead with the arrest, broadcaster Fuji TV said.

    “Wow, can you get arrested for running over a pigeon?”, one user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    “He could’ve just honked his car horn or something. But intentionally killing it? That’s crossing the line,” another posted.

  • After pigeons, India arrests Pakistani balloon

    Indian police in occupied Kashmir have taken into custody a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane-shaped balloon. According to Indian news agency ANI, the balloon landed in Sotra Chak village of Hiranagar on March 9.

    While the detention of balloon with the logo of Pakistan’s national carrier seems silly, the incident was not the first of its kind. Indian security personnel have taken several pigeons and balloons into custody for their alleged links with Pakistan. A Pakistani villager had last year appealed to India to release his pigeon which was being held for spying after it crossed the border between the nuclear rivals.

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