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'Spy' pigeon captured near IB in Kathua

JAMMU: Locals living close to the international border (IB) in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir have captured a pigeon with a coded ring tagged to its foot. The pigeon, painted pink, was caught on Sunday evening near Manyari village. It is alleged that the bird flew from across the border.


“We don’t know where the bird has come from.

Locals on our side captured it near our fence. We have found a ring tagged to it its foot on which some numbers are written,” Kathua SSP Shailendra Kumar Misra said, adding that an investigation is underway.

“The pigeon, suspected to be trained in Pakistan for spying, has a ring with alphabets and numbers written on it,” a police source said, adding, “though birds have no boundaries and many fly across international borders during migration, a coded ring tagged to the captured pigeon’s body is a cause for concern as migratory birds don’t have such rings.”

This isn’t the first time that a pigeon carrying codes was captured near the international border. Balloons and pigeons, carrying confusing messages, are a form of “psychological operation” being carried out by Pakistan in villages along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir.

In November last year, a plane-shaped balloon with a handwritten note attached to it that contained a warning about a fidayeen attack in Jammu to avenge the killing of terrorist Zakir Musa, landed in Jammu’s Channi Himmat locality. In August 2018, a balloon with Pakistan national flag and ‘I love Pakistan’ printed on it was found hovering over Moti village near the IB in Jammu. Similarly, in June that year, a pigeon with markings on its body, partly in Urdu, was found from Manwal village , close to the border.

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