Amritsar | After the long wait, IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman who was arrested by Pakistan has crossed the Wagah Border and officially entered India.
Indian Air Force pilot was released by Pakistan as a “peace gesture”, in an announcement made by Pakistan PM Imran Khan. However, India has been maintaining that Pakistani decision is in consonance with the Geneva Convention.
The scheduled handover was changed by the Pakistani authorities to 9PM.
The pilot was whisked away in a convoy by Indian officials away from the public glare.
According to IAF officials, he will be brought to Delhi from Amritsar in a special flight.
Varthaman was captured by Pakistani authorities on February 27 after an air combat between the air forces of the two countries, a day after New Delhi had conducted counter-terror operations in Pakistan’s Balakot.
The Pakistan government was under tremendous international pressure to de-escalate the tensions with India and release the captured pilot.
Forty CRPF personnel were killed and many injured on February 14 in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district.
Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor at Attari-Wagah border said,” Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman has been handed over to us. He will now be taken for a detailed medical checkup because he had to eject from an aircraft. IAF is happy to have him back”, as quoted by the ANI.
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