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Police in India have "arrested" a pigeon on suspicion of being a Pakistani spy after it was caught carrying a message and a "wire-like device".

The feathered intruder was nabbed by officers - who presumably suspected a coup - after it was spotted close to the Pakistani border with the markings of an address and phone number.

The "stamped message" left investigators in a flap after it emerged the note was written in Urdu - the national language of Pakistan - and the phone number was Pakistani.

A 14-year-old boy carried the pigeon to a police station after finding it in the village of Manwal, around 4km from the border, on Wednesday.

The cross-border agent was x-rayed but police said no further messages were found.

Pathankot's senior superintendent of police Rakesh Kaushal told the Times of India: "Nothing adverse has been found, but we have kept the bird in our custody.



"This is a rare instance of a bird from Pakistan being spotted here. We have caught a few spies here. The area is sensitive, given its proximity to Jammu, where infiltration is quite common."

The "twitchy" prisoner has since been kept under armed guard , according to India.com, which also claims the pigeon is in fact a Pakistani dove.

The flutter of activity comes after the country's Intelligence Bureau reportedly put out an alert to Punjab Police to be on the lookout for Indian Mujahideen - Pakistani terrorists - in the Jammu and Pathankot areas.