Pakistan returns fighter pilot to India as gesture of peace

NEW DELHI — 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 Wing Cmdr. Abhinandan Varthaman, an Indian fighter pilot, crashed in Pakistani territory on Wednesday, the story of his survival has 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 neighbors.

Late Friday, Cmdr. Varthaman crossed into India on foot at the Wagah border crossing with Pakistan. Under floodlights, he stepped through the towering metal gate that separates the two countries and shook hands with security officials on the Indian side.

It was a hero’s welcome: Hundreds of Indians awaited Cmdr. Varthaman’s arrival all day, waving the national flag and holding garlands of flowers they hoped to drape around his neck. Television anchors choked with emotion as they described the scene. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the pilot home on Twitter, saluting his “exemplary courage.”

Cmrd. Varthaman’s plane was hit Wednesday morning in the first aerial dogfight between India and Pakistan in nearly 50 years. He was subsequently captured by the Pakistani military, a particularly dramatic development in an already volatile conflict between the two nations. Countries around the world, including the U.S., worked to ease the tensions.

Cmdr. Varthaman parachuted out of his flaming plane, according to media outlets, including the BBC and Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English newspaper. Upon discovering he was in Pakistan, he ran backward, the reports said, firing his pistol in the air to ward off 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.

On Thursday afternoon, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that his country would return Cmdr. 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 airstrike on Tuesday on what it said was a terrorist training camp within Pakistan.

The atmosphere of anxiety eased further Friday when Pakistan partially reopened its airspace after two days of closures.