Suspected Chinese spy pigeon held for eight months is released after mystery about 'secret message on his foot' is solved

AN EXPECTED spy pigeon has finally been released after eight months in an Indian prison.

The alleged agent aroused suspicion when he was found near a port in Mumbai in May – with two rings with a message that “looked like Chinesetied to his legs.

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Police suspected the pigeon was spying on behalf of the Chinese government and took him into custody before sending him to Mumbai animal Hopital.

After an eight-month investigation, detectives revealed that the riddle on the bird's foot was not Chinese at all.

It has now emerged that the poor pigeon was actually an open water flyer Taiwan who had escaped and flown to India.

The Indian police immediately handed over the falsely accused bird to the police Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which has since released it back into the wild.

Mumbai Police could not be reached for comment.

This is also not the first time that the Indian police have had to deal with 'spy pigeons'.

Just a few months prior to this ordeal, in March, two suspected spy pigeons were captured in the eastern state of Odisha.

One of the pigeons was found on board a fishing boat with devices – believed to be a camera and a microchip – mounted on its leg.

Both birds are still under investigation.

In 2020, a pigeon was accused of being a Pakistani spy when it was captured along the Indian-Indian border Pakistani– controlled parts of Kashmir.

The suspected spy was painted pink and wore a ring with numbers on his foot.

Shailendra Kumar Mishra, senior superintendent of Kathua police, told local media at the time that the encrypted ring was a cause for concern.

He said that although birds have no borders and often fly across international borders, migratory birds generally do not have rings on them.

In 2016, a pigeon was taken into custody after it was found flying with a threatening note on it Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The bird was found in the northern state of Punjab, where deadly clashes had taken place between Pakistani and Indian militants.

The note was written in Urdu and said, “Modi, we are not the same people of 1971. Now every child is ready to fight India”.

And in 2015, another pigeon was intercepted, this time in Manwal village, two and a half miles from the border.

An officer told NDTV: “This is a sensitive area as it is right along the international border.

“Infiltration is also quite common along this route.”

Tensions between India's neighbors have reached a boiling point, with clashes on the sidelines Indian-Pakistani borderand the Indian-Chinese borderwhich is becoming increasingly common.