March 1, 2019 / 2:07 PM / 2 months ago

Pakistan releases captured Indian pilot; confrontation cools

Krishna N. Das, Abu Arqam Naqash

WAGAH, India/MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan handed back a captured

Indian pilot on Friday as the nuclear-armed neighbors scaled back a confrontation
that has prompted world powers to urge restraint, although shelling continued in
the disputed Kashmir region.

Television footage showed Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman walking across the
border near the town of Wagah just before 9 p.m. (1600 GMT). Indian officials
confirmed he had been returned and said he would be taken for medical checks.

�While in captivity, he (Abhinandan) was treated with dignity and in line with
international law,� the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Prime Minister Imran Khan announced his return �as a goodwill gesture aimed at de-
escalating rising tensions with India�, it added, echoing Pakistan�s stance this
week that wants to resolve the conflict through talks.

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 Pakistani side of the de facto border that separates the
two sides of Kashmir, a Himalayan region that has been a source of hostility
between the two countries since independence from Britain in 1947.

Tensions escalated rapidly following a suicide car bombing on Feb. 14 that killed
at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

India accused Pakistan of harboring the Jaish-e Mohammad group behind the attack,
which Islamabad denied, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised a strong
response.

The conflict came at a critical time for Modi, who faces a general election that
must be held by May and who had been expected to benefit from nationalist pride
unleashed by the standoff.

But his government faced growing questions from opposition parties after announcing
on Tuesday that Indian warplanes had destroyed a major Jaish-e Mohammad training
camp in Pakistan, killing �a very large number� of militants.
Pakistan said the Indian planes missed whatever they were aiming at, and that
nobody died in the attack outside Balakot, a small town in Pakistan�s Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province. Reuters reporters who visited the scene could see no sign of
damage apart from four craters and some splintered trees. Villagers in the area
said one man had been slightly hurt.

�People should decide if they trust India�s armed forces or not,� Amit Shah,
president of India�s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said at an event on Friday,
referring to opposition calls for more information about the attack.

�Those who are doubting are helping Pakistan.�

A man watches a statement of Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman on his
mobile phone, released on twitter by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, in
Karachi, Pakistan March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
Kashmir, a Muslim-majority area that has been at the root of two of the three wars
fought between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both India and Pakistan, who both
control a part of the region. India has fought a three-decade old insurgency by
Islamist militants in its part of the region.

ORDEAL

The Indian pilot�s ordeal made him a focal point of the crisis for Indians, after
footage of his battered face was shown on Pakistani television and social media
shortly after he was captured.

Waiting for Abhinandan�s return on Friday, crowds thronged the road to the
crossing, shouting nationalist slogans and waving Indian flags. The handover took
place hours later than expected, for reasons that were not clear.

�Pakistan is releasing our pilot, I thank them for that,� said Kulwant Singh, who
has run a food stall at the crossing for 20 years. �War can never be good. War is
bad for business, war is bad for our soldiers.�

Before his release, Pakistani television stations broadcast video of Abhinandan in

which he thanked the Pakistani army for saving him from an angry crowd who chased
him after seeing him parachute to safety.

�The Pakistani army is a very professional service,� he said. �I have spent time
with the Pakistan army. I am very impressed.�

Witnesses in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir said that after the pilot ejected from his
plane he found himself facing angry villagers and ran off, firing his pistol into
the air to deter them.

�During that half a kilometre run, he fired some more gunshots in the air as well,
to frighten the guys but to no avail,� said Muhammad Razzaq Chaudhry, 58.

�Then he jumped into a small stream. Then, he realized that he could not
escape, he took out some documents and maps from his uniform and tried to swallow
some, tear apart and immerse the rest.�