News: A pigeon has been caught and held by India on the charge of being a Pakistani “spy”, but a villager has claimed the pigeon to be his and has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to return it to him.
Here are five components of the story:
- Villagers captured the bird on Monday along the international border in Indian-administered Kashmir and handed it over to the police. The man, who lives 4 kilometres away from the border, said he flew the pigeons in celebration of Eid.
- The police claimed that the pigeon had a ring on one of its legs which was inscribed with a code that they were trying to decipher, but the villagers who claims to own the pigeon says that code is actually his phone number.
- Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper has identified the man as Habibullah and reports that he owns a dozen pigeons. The paper reported that he said the pigeon was a “symbol of peace”.
- This is not the first time a pigeon flying from Pakistan has landed in trouble with Indian officials. In May 2015, a white pigeon was arrested after it was spotted by a 14-year-old boy in a village close to the border, and in October 2016, another pigeon was taken into custody after it was found with a note threatening the Indian prime minister.
- The region of Kashmir is in the middle of a very long territorial and identity struggle, and the border areas have had a number of contentious dealings.
