Leaving a bird keeper deeply disheartened, thieves decamped with 35 homing pigeons, including a prized champion flier, from the house of a hobby pigeoneer in the state capital.
Thieves struck the Gautam Nagar house of Junaid Qureshi and took flight with the pigeons, as well as birding paraphernalia, which included the dovecotes Qureshi used to keep the pigeons.
He says that since the robbery—on the intervening night of Friday-Saturday—he has been visiting all the bird markets in the city in search of the missing birds.
Qureshi and his hobby made newspaper headlines last year when a pigeon in his flock emerged victorious at a local championship by flying for nearly 12 hours.
The theft has left the city police flummoxed, as they are not quite sure how to deal with the incident, which requires them to attempt recovering the pigeons.
Investigating Officer Bhupendra Ojha said the police are trying to locate the stolen flock, but CCTV scans from the area have not yet resulted in any significant discoveries.
