Pigeon with a chip lands in Gujarat, sparks fear
This is one "kabootarbaazi" that has the Gujarat police, Coast Guard, forest department, forensic experts and now even the Union home ministry, scratching their heads. A pigeon lost at sea was spotted sipping water from a bowl at the under-construction Essar jetty at Salaya shore in Devbumi Dwarka, Gujarat, in the afternoon of March 20. The bird would have gone unnoticed but for its refusal to take flight when the Essar security guard tried to shoo him away. As the bewildered guard got hold of the daring bird, he spotted a chip tied to one of its claws and a ring with the number '28733' on the other claw. What is more, the bird had writings in Urdu/Arabic across its wings.
All hell broke loose thereafter. According to an intelligence report sent to the Centre by SP of Devbhumi Dwarka on March 24, the guard rushed with the 'intruder' bird and reported the matter to his superior. The 'winged suspect' was 'detained' for a day but his owner was nowhere to be found. Fearing that arrival of the "tagged" pigeon could pose a security threat, the Essar security personnel decided to alert Coast Guard officials at Vadinar and hand them the bird "for further investigation".
The Coast Guard, which leaves nothing to chance after a sea-borne infiltration in 2008 culminated in India's worst terror attack, spent a day wondering what to do with the "tagged and marked" intruder that its officers couldn't even interrogate. On March 23, the pigeon was remanded to police custody after the Coast Guard officials contacted the Vadinar Marine police station and asked it to join the multi-agency probe into its antecedents. The officer in charge of the Vadinar marine police station made a station diary entry No 12/2015 at 1215 hours on March 23 and opted for a "strip search" of the suspect. The forensic officer was called in and made to take out the ring and chip from the pigeon's feet. These items were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Gandhinagar for a closer examination.
The chip was found to have the writings 'Benjing Dual' inscribed on it. This was googled by the agencies who found that 'Benzing Dual' is a sensor chip used for racing pigeons. Further, the Urdu/Arabic writings in blue on the pigeon's wings was interpreted as "Rasul-ul-Allah' (messenger of Allah).
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