Islamabad/March, 1: Hours after Pakistan announced its decision to release Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, India sought the return of the the pilot through aerial route but Pakistan insisted to return the pilot via Wagah border, a media report quoted official sources as saying so.
Responding to Indian plea, Pakistan conveyed to India that he will be returned through the Attari-Wagah border.
The Indian defence establishment was also mulling over sending a special aircraft to Pakistan to bring back Wing Commander Varthaman who was captured by Pakistan during an aerial combat on Wednesday.
Varthaman will now return home through the Wagah border which is around 25 km from Lahore in Pakistan.
The IAF pilot’s MiG 21 was shot and he bailed out during a dogfight to repel a Pakistani attack on Wednesday morning.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday announced that Varthaman will be released on Friday as “peace gesture”.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after Indian fighters bombed Jaish-e-Mohammed’s ‘biggest training camp’ near Balakot deep inside Pakistan early Tuesday.
It came 12 days after 40 CRPF personnel were killed when a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying explosives into their bus in Pulwama distrit of Jammu and Kashmir on February 14.
Following the bombing of the JeM training camp, the Pakistan Air Force carried out a retaliatory aerial combat, shooting down a MiG and capturing an Indian pilot.
