A frightened India on Sunday claimed to have got hold of suspected balloons with sentences written in Urdu on them in the Gurdaspur area, media reports said.
After the flop drama of a pigeon’s custody, India has come up with the balloons case and claimed to have “detained them” with a message for Modi.According to the Indian media, sentences giving warning to India and taking revenge of surgical strikes were written on them.
As revealed, the message read: “Modi, do not consider us the same people as we were during 1971. Now each and every child is ready to fight against India.”India had claimed to finding two balloons from the same area with a similar sort of message a week ago.
Earlier, the Indian police detained another pigeon that flew into a village near the heavily-militarised border with Pakistan on suspicion of being a ‘spy’.The state intelligence and army officers inspected the pigeon which might have flown across border from Pakistan and landed in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district with some words in Urdu inscribed on its wings.
The bird was handed over to the police by a local Naresh Kumar, who spotted some ‘suspicious text’ on the wings which were actually names of the week days.It is pertinent to mention here that in 2015, the Indian authorities had captured a pigeon which was claimed to be a ‘spy’ pigeon from Pakistan.
In 2013, Indian security forces found a dead falcon fitted with a small camera, and in 2010 another pigeon was detained over ‘espionage’ fears.Moreover, the Indian Coastguard in the Indian Ocean captured a boat of Pakistani fishermen, suspecting them to be spies from Pakistan.
On the other hand, a senior Pathankot police official described the pigeon as grey-coloured and has stated that it was found sitting near a post on Saturday. “The pigeon was carrying the letter when it was found. We are investigating the matter.” Inspector Ramesh Kumar said, adding the bird was being taken into “custody”.
Meanwhile, India’s surgical strike across the Line of Control in the aftermath of Uri attack has had an immediate fallout on commercial flights from India. Pakistan has banned low-level flying over its airspacethat could result in rerouting of flights to the US, Europe and the Gulf.
A Notam — note to airmen or a bulletin to aviators — issued by Pakistani aviation authorities says all flights flying over Lahore will now have to fly above 29,000 feet while crossing Lahore.These restrictions will be for the whole month of October, says the NOTAM, citing operational reasons.
Last Monday, a similar NOTAM was issued for all the civilian aircraft flying over Karachi to maintain a flight level of 33,000 feet.Reports suggest that lower level of airspace or flight levels have been reserved for Pakistani fighter aircraft.
However, Pakistan aviation authorities denies such restrictions.“What this means is that our flights will have to opt for longer and safer routes and that can delay flights,” said a former Indian DGCA official, who didn’t wish to be identified.
Except PIA that flies between India and Pakistan, no other Indian carriers operate between the two countries. But Pakistan is a popular air corridor for flights operating between the Far East and West Asia, Europe and the US. (Monitoring Report)
