Captured fighter pilot to be handed back to India in the afternoon at the Wagah border crossing, Pakistan FM says.

Pakistan is set to release a captured Indian pilot in a “peace gesture” aimed at easing tensions with its nuclear archrival, after aerial clashes ignited fears of a dangerous conflict in South Asia.

Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who has become the face of the crisis between Islamabad and New Delhi, will be handed back to Indian officials at the Wagah border crossing on Friday afternoon, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said. 

In New Delhi, the announcement of his release by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday, was seen as a diplomatic victory, with Indian leaders welcoming the pilot’s return but announcing they would remain on “heightened” military alert. 

“We have an Indian pilot. As a peace gesture we will release him tomorrow,” Khan told a joint sitting of parliament in the capital Islamabad on Thursday.

At raid site, no casualties and a mysterious school

Khan also said he had unsuccessfully tried to make a telephone contact with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Wednesday night.

“Yesterday, I tried to call Narendra Modi,” Khan said. “I wanted to make it clear that we do not want any kind of escalation.”

Abhinandan was shot down over Kashmir on Wednesday, after a dogfight in the skies over the disputed Himalayan region which sent tensions between India and Pakistan to their highest levels in years and alarmed world powers, who issued calls for restraint.

“As the prime minister has said, as a peace gesture and to de-escalate matters, the Indian pilot will be released. So today, this afternoon, he will be released at Wagah,” Qureshi told a joint session of parliament in the capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

A diplomatic source told AFP news agency, the handover was expected between 3-4pm Pakistani time (1000-1100 GMT).

The Wagah crossing gate is famed for hosting an elaborate daily ceremony by Indian and Pakistani soldiers at sundown.

Thousands of people had already gathered on the Indian side early on Friday to welcome the pilot home, an AFP journalist said.

The pilot’s parents travelled to Amritsar, near Wagah, via Delhi late last night and were applauded by all the passengers on the plane they travelled on, TV footage showed.

Media on the Pakistani side were being stopped by authorities around 1.5 kilometres (a mile) from the border.

The surging tensions had prompted Pakistan to close down its airspace, disrupting major routes between Europe and South Asia and grounding thousands of travellers worldwide.

On Friday morning the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced a decision would be taken on re-opening airspace “shortly”.

Earlier it had said flights would remain grounded until at least 1.00 pm local time (0800 GMT) on Friday.

#WelcomeBackAbhi 

The latest confrontation between the neighbours, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947, erupted after a suicide bombing in Indian-held Kashmir killed at least 42 Indian paramilitary troops on February 14, with the attack claimed by Pakistan-based rebel group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). 

Twelve days later, Indian warplanes launched an air raid inside undisputed Pakistani territory, claiming to have hit a JeM camp.

It was the first such aerial attack since their last war in 1971, before either country had nuclear weapons.

An infuriated Islamabad denied casualties or damage, but a day later launched its own incursion as a show of strength across the Line of Control, the de facto Kashmir border.

That sparked the dogfight that ended in both countries claiming they had shot down each other’s warplanes, and Abhinandan’s capture.

Residents on either side of the LoC also reported heavy shelling, which continued into the early hours Friday.

Analysts said the pilot could prove to be Islamabad’s trump card, but Prime Minister Imran Khan unexpectedly announced on Thursday that he would be released a day later in the first sign of a potential thaw.

Khan alluded to the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war and called for talks, even as he warned India should not take the announcement as a sign of weakness.

With the pilot attaining hero status and the hashtag #WelcomeBackAbhi swiftly trending on social media, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on his citizens to “stand as a wall” in the face of an enemy that “seeks to destabilise India”.

The last time an Indian pilot was captured by Pakistan, in 1999, the handover was facilitated by the Red Cross (ICRC), who met Flight Lieutenant K. Nachiketa at the Pakistani foreign office in Islamabad before escorting him to the Indian high commission overnight.

He left for India that same day.

On Friday a Red Cross spokesman told AFP the aid organisation is “ready to provide any assistance necessary”, but so far “is not involved” in Abhinandan’s return.

Kashmir is ruled in part but claimed in full by both India and Pakistan. Two of their three wars have been fought over the disputed territory.

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Nasheman News : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday welcomed IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman back home while choosing not to receive him at the border to ensure that the military protocol is not violated in any way.

“I would have loved to go since both he and his father were from the National Defence Academy, like me, and it would have been an extremely happy and nostalgic moment for me to receive the brave officer,” the Chief Minister said in a statement.

After his offer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday evening to welcome the Indian Air Force (IAF) officer back on Indian soil at the Punjab border, Amarinder Singh said he thought it over and concluded that it might contravene the protocols laid out in such cases.

“When any prisoner of war from the 1965 or 1971 war came back, he was first sent for medical examination, followed by a debriefing, which was likely to be the case with Wing Commander Abhinandan too,” he noted.

It would be more proper for him not to go to the Attari border, around 285 km from here, to receive the officer, said the Chief Minister, who was camping in the border areas for the past three days as part of the confidence-building exercise undertaken by him in the wake of tensions prevailing at the Line of Control following the IAF strikes in the aftermath of the February 14 Pulwama terror attack.

But the Chief Minister extended a very warm welcome to Varthaman, saying the whole nation was proud of the way he stood up to questioning by the Pakistan armed forces during captivity.

Nasheman News : Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan on Thursday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan, stressing the importance of dialogue and communication in resolving differences.

The Crown Prince said in a tweet that he talked to Modi and Khan, and stressed the “importance of dealing wisely with recent developments and giving priority to dialogue and communication”. 

The Crown Prince is also the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.

The tweet came a day before the meet of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in which India — for the first time, has been invited as guest of honour at the plenary.



Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after India struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp in Pakistan on Tuesday following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

Pakistan sought to target some Indian military installations next day and in the ensuing aerial fight, both countries lost a fighter jet.



Pakistan has decided to release on Friday Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was taken in its custody after his MiG-21 went down in Pakistan-occupied territory. 

Nasheman News : Russian President Vladimir Putin called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi over phone on Thursday and conveyed solidarity of the Russian people with India’s people in the fight against terrorism.

He also expressed his deep condolences on the Pulwama terrorist attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. 

An official release said that Modi thanked Putin for Russia’s steadfast support for India’s efforts to protect its interests against cross-border terror attacks.

He renewed India’s commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation in countering terrorism as a pillar of privileged and special strategic partnership. 

Both leaders agreed that all concerned should stop all support to terrorism.

Both the leaders also agreed that the growing cooperation between the two countries will take their Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership “from strength to strength”.

President Putin reiterated the invitation to the Prime Minister to attend the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok later this year. 

Modi welcomed the invitation and underscored the significance of growing economic cooperation, including in the Russian Far East, between the two countries.