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 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.
Photo: AP
An investigation at a Mumbai animal hospital determined the bird was an open-water racing pigeon that had escaped from Taiwan and winged its way to India, the Taiwan News Web site reported.
After the bird’s origin was determined, it was transferred to an animal welfare group, which set it free.
A spokesperson for the Taiwan Pigeon Racing Association said that it was possible the bird could have flown to India from Taiwan, although there was no way of being sure it was from Taiwan, as Indian police did not release its serial number.
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 statement on Thursday.
PETA India said police on Wednesday had granted “formal permission for the hospital to release the pigeon.”
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 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi close to India’s border with 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 might have been on a “special mission of spying.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS