WAGAH, Pakistan: Pakistani officials on Friday brought an Indian pilot captured from a downed plane to a border crossing with India for handover, a “gesture of peace” promised by Prime Minister Imran Khan after an earlier dramatic escalation of tensions over the disputed region of Kashmir.
The pilot, identified as Wing Cmdr Abhinandan Varthaman, was taken in a convoy that set out from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore to the border crossing at Wagah, escorted by military vehicles with soldiers, their weapons drawn.
On the Indian side of the border, Indian policemen were lined up along the road as a group of cheering residents from the area waved India’s national flag and held up a huge garland of flowers to welcome him back.
The expected handover comes against the backdrop of blistering cross-border attacks across the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that continued for a fourth straight day, even as the two nuclear-armed neighbors sought to defuse their most serious confrontation in two decades.
Tens of thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers face off along the Kashmir boundary known as the Line of Control, in one of the world’s most volatile regions.
Tensions have been running high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday carrying out what India called a pre-emptive strike against militants blamed for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops. Pakistan retaliated, shooting down two Indian aircraft on Wednesday and capturing a pilot.
Since the escalation, world leaders have scrambled to head off an all-out war on the Asian subcontinent. President Donald trump in Hanoi on Thursday said he had been involved in seeking to de-escalate the conflict.
Khan, the Pakistani premier, told lawmakers on Thursday, “We are releasing the Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture tomorrow.”
But India made it clear that the latest escalation has changed its strategy and that going forward, it would strike, including inside Pakistan, if they get information of an attack in the planning. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier on Thursday warned: “India’s enemies are conspiring to create instability in the country through terror attacks.”
Also on Friday, Pakistan’s civil aviation authority partially reopened the country’s airspace, allowing travel to four major cities, another sign tensions were de-escalating.
The agency said all domestic and international flights would be allowed to and from Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta. It said other airports, including the one located in Lahore that borders India, will remain closed until Monday. All airspace would be open by 1pm local time on Monday, a spokeswoman said.
The closure of Pakistani airspace disrupted not just the country’s own air transport but also flights worldwide as airlines were forced to cancel or reroute flights to other destinations that pass over Pakistan.
Flights between Asia and Europe were severely affected by the closure, with thousands of passengers stranded, although airlines were later able to reroute many flights through China that normally pass over Pakistan.
Kashmir has been divided but claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan since almost immediately after the two countries were created by partition in 1947. They have fought three wars, two directly over the disputed region.
