Strange it may appear, but India's border guards have demanded the registration of a police case against a pigeon suspected of being trained to "spy" by Pakistan.
Officials said the pigeon was caught by a Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in the northern Indian state of Punjab, which shares its border with Pakistan, after it found a comfortable perch on his shoulder on Saturday.
This was after the BSF trooper recovered a small piece of paper with a "contact number" that was attached to one of the pigeon's legs.
Senior Punjab Police officer Dhruv Dahiya told the media on Wednesday that they had received a complaint from the BSF personnel and sought legal opinion on his complaint before taking a call on the filing of a first information report (FIR).
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“As the pigeon is a bird, I don’t think an FIR can be registered against it. But we have referred the matter to our legal experts. The number tagged on the pigeon’s leg is being analysed," he said.
This is not the first time that a pigeon flying from Pakistan has been caught by Indian authorities and labeled as a spy.
Last year too, a pigeon carrying a "coded message" was caught by villagers in Indian-controlled Kashmir and handed over to the local authorities. In October 2016 too, a pigeon was caught with a note threatening Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India and Pakistan are arch-rivals and have fought at least three major wars over the disputed region of Kashmir in the past 65 years.
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