Body scan done too.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: The Border Security Force of India has taken into custody a pigeon with “Pakistani markings” all over its body after it was found lying wounded in the bordering Punjabi district of Pathankot on Wednesday.
The suspected ‘Spy Pigeon’ was nabbed by authorities from the Bamial sector of Pathankot district after it was found lying just a few kilometres away from the Pakistani border with one of its wings badly injured.
According to the authorities, the injured pigeon has “Shakargarh” and “Narowal” written all over its body in English along with a few Urdu words and numbers. Shakargarh Tehsil is a part of the Pakistani district of Narowal, which is in the Punjab province of the country.
SSP of Pathankot R K Kaushal was quoted by The Indian Express saying “We are investigating the matter and have alerted the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Border Security Force (BSF).”
The authorities have not let a single feather of the bird unturned; they even got the pigeon scanned to rule out if anything was studded inside it.
R K Kaushal added “But we did not find anything in the scan. It may be harmless, but we cannot take any chances.”
R S Kataria, DIG of the Border Security Force, Punjab Frontier, said his seniors, including the commanding officer of the BSF battalion of the area, closely examined the pigeon.
He added that “nothing suspicious has been found as yet but we are not taking any chances,” He is of the opinion that the bird could have been used to smuggle in a SIM card or a message across the border.
There was a similar case reported from another bordering state where a pigeon was found with strange messages tagged to its body. Five years back another pigeon was caught in Amritsar with markings in its body that read “apprehended” in Pakistani. That pigeon was alleged as a “spy pigeon” and was handed over to the wildlife authorities after a thorough investigation.