More to the ‘spy birds’ than meets the eye?

Friday, February 06, 2009

IB probing Pak link of men held for selling these wild birds illegally

Thane: The Anti Poaching Unit, the vigilance wing of the forest department, and a Mumbai-based NGO, has trapped a group of people for dealing with wild birds illegally.

About Pics : one bird in hand: One of the rescued birds

What's shocking is that the birds recovered belong to the same species that have been earlier used by Pakistan as spies. So what seemed like a case of the forest department trapping people to save the rare species of birds has now assumed a new dimension.

About Pics : Ashfaque (second from left) after his arrest

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) is reportedly looking whether this case is linked with Pakistan. The accused are now in police custody.

The case began with founder of PAWS, the NGO, Sunish Subramanyam registering a complaint against the website oxl.com, where the wild birds are placed for sale.
The Thane forest department took the lead and arrested two youths - Farhan Anwar Khan (24) and Mohammed Siddiqui Sayyed (25) aka Javed - on Jan 31 near Santa Cruz airport. After interrogation, the duo revealed the name of Ashfaque Yasin Mohmin (30), the main seller.

The department then trapped Ashfaque at Crawford Market on Feb 4. He has a shop there and he undertakes the illegal activity of selling rare species of birds from here.

"We got a complaint against this illegal activity after a complaint registered against the website. Zeroing in on this, we trapped the three accused. The Schedule I Part III of Wildlife Protection Act 1972 says that the birds belong to rare species and there is a ban on their sale," said Assistant Conservator of Forests Satish Phale.

Sources said that the forest department had earlier laid two traps to nab the accused, but failed. Finally, they called the officials at Santa Cruz airport and managed to nab them on Saturday night.

The sources also claimed that these are the same birds which are used by Pakistan as spies after giving rigorous training. These birds found in northern part of the India and are a rare sight in this area. It is now claimed that there is a chain of people selling such birds.

The Intelligence Bureau is now believed to be scrutinising the matter and trying to ascertain whether these men are also linked with the espionage network.