Tensions ease after handover
He parachuted out over enemy territory, fired into the air to keep back angry locals, jumped into a pond, and then destroyed documents by eating them.
Ever since Indian fighter pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman crashed in Pakistani territory on Wednesday, the story of his survival had transfixed a nation. Now his safe return to India is helping defuse one of the worst crises to erupt in decades between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Yesterday, Varthaman crossed back into India on foot at the Wagah border crossing with Pakistan and shook hands with security officials on the Indian side.
It was a hero’s welcome – hundreds of Indians has awaited Varthaman’s arrival all day, waving the national flag and holding garlands of flowers they hoped to drape around his neck. Television reporters choked with emotion as they described the scene. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the pilot home on Twitter, saluting his ‘‘exemplary courage’’.
Varthaman’s plane was during the first aerial dogfight between India and Pakistan in nearly 50 years. He was captured by the Pakistani military, a particularly dramatic development in an already volatile conflict between the two nations.
Varthaman parachuted out of his flaming plane. Upon discovering he was in Pakistan, he fired his pistol into the air to ward off angry locals. When they got too close, he jumped into a pond, and destroyed sensitive documents and maps by swallowing some and soaking others before he was captured.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Friday that his country would return Varthaman to India as a ‘‘peace gesture’’. The move immediately lowered tensions between India and Pakistan after two days of hostilities that began when India launched an air strike on Tuesday on what it said was a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.
Even as India and Pakistan traded accusations, Varthaman’s dignified behaviour in captivity united people from both sides of the border, mostly in praise. Videos of his capture and questioning were shared by thousands on social media. Pakistani citizens joined the chorus asking their government to return Varthaman as a gesture of peace.
– Washington Post