Pakistan as “peace gesture” freed Indian Pilot Abhinandan, who was taken down during an airstrike against Pakistan Air Force on Tuesday, while Prime Minister Imran Khan seeks talks with India to de-escalate ongoing tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries.
Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, has been returned home-country and said he would be taken for medical checks, as Indian cheered and shared common joy welcoming him across the border near Wagah town.
Khan announced his return “as a goodwill gesture aimed at de-escalating rising tensions with India”, he added, echoing Pakistan’s stance this week that wants to resolve the conflict through talks.
“While in captivity, he (Abhinandan) was treated with dignity and in line with international law,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Abhinandan’s MiG-21 jet was shot down by a Pakistani fighter during a clash over Kashmir on Wednesday as two weeks of growing tensions between the two countries erupted into open hostilities.
The plane crashed on the Pakistan-administered Kashmir (also called Azad Kashmir) that lies west of Indian-administered Kashmir and has been source of hostility between the two countries since independence from Britain in 1947.
It comes weeks later when suicide bombing hit a convoy of Indian forces in Kashmir, accumulating tensions between India and Pakistan after deadly attack.
Follow TKG on Twitter & Facebook
