Indian police decided to release a pigeon after it was kept in a cage for eight months on suspicion of being a spy for China.
The bird was caught in Mumbai last year and sparked concern when authorities noticed it was carrying a piece of paper with a message in Mandarin in its paws.
The pigeon was taken to a local veterinary hospital while police investigated to determine whether or not the animal was a subject of Chinese espionage.
A pigeon suspected of espionage was released in India. Photo: Pixabay
After a few months, the Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Animal Hospital (BSDPHA) in Mumbai sought police permission to release the healthy pigeon.
However, the authorities refused. The animal rights organization PETA decided to intervene and demanded that the police release the bird.
“Like all birds, pigeons should be able to fly freely in the air, forage for food and raise their young in pairs in collaboration with other birds,” said Poorva Joshipura, director of PETA India.
The truth is that the pigeon’s innocence has been proven: the animal was actually a racing bird that had escaped from Taiwan and ended up in India.
In this way, the pigeon, which was supposedly a spy, was released on January 30 in the Indian city of Bombay.
This is not the first time that Indian authorities have captured a pigeon on suspicion of espionage. The alarm began in 2016 when a bird was arrested for carrying a message endangering the life of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In 2020, police arrested a pigeon flying over a military area but released it shortly after realizing it belonged to a Pakistani fisherman.
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