● Release of shot-down pilot delayed without valid reasons

WAGAH: Crowds on the Indian side of the border with Pakistan dwindled last night as the wait for the handover of a captured air force pilot dragged on.

Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was downed on Wednesday over Kashmir, had been expected to be handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah border crossing yesterday afternoon.

But as night fell, the wait dragged on and the crowd of people, previously numbering several thousand waving flags and singing patriotic songs, dwindled to a few hundred.

Authorities on both sides were tight-lipped on the reasons for the delay.

Varthaman was shot down in a dogfight with Pakistani aircraft over the tinder box disputed region of Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan since 1947.

This came after Indian warplanes launched a strike inside Pakistani territory, claiming to have hit a militant camp in the first such aerial raid since their last war in 1971.

The strike followed a massive suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian troops on Feb 14, with the attack claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group.

Violence meanwhile continued to rage in Kashmir, with both sides firing mortars and artillery over the de-facto Line of Control (LoC) frontier, killing several.

Gunbattles between militants and security forces in Indianadministered Kashmir meanwhile left seven dead including four members of the Indian security forces, two militants and another civilian.

Earlier, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the move to hand back the pilot was a peace gesture.

“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 said yesterday.

In New Delhi the announcement of his release was seen as a diplomatic victory, with Indian leaders welcoming the pilot’s return but announcing they would remain on “heightened” military alert, showing little sign of de-escalating the rivalry.

Back in Wagah, Abhinandan’s parents were given a standing ovation by fellow passengers as they boarded a flight to Amritsar near Wagah to welcome their son.

The couple were among the hundreds still waiting for the return of their son last night.

The highly symbolic Wagah crossing gate is famed for hosting an elaborate daily ceremony by Indian and Pakistani soldiers at sundown. However, the ceremony was halted to the arrival of Abhinandan.