New Delhi: Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman will be released on Friday as a gesture of peace, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said.
Imran’s statement in the Pakistan parliament came hours after US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful of a “decent good news” soon which would lead to an end of tension between the two countries.
Pakistan’s largest circulated newspaper the Dawn reported on Thursday how Abhinandan had swallowed important documents and had fired in the air before being outnumbered and taken into custody by Pakistan.
The air force pilot’s heroic attempt’s to uphold the country’s honour and destroy all classified documents before being captured was reported by Pakistan’s newspaper Dawn in its edition on Thursday.
Abhinandan was piloting a MiG 21 fighter jet which was shot down by Pakistan during the aerial dog-fight along the LoC between the Indian and Pakistani jets on Wednesday morning.
He fought his captors, fired into the air and swallowed important documents (which should not have been in enemy hands), before he was outnumbered and captured, the newspaper said, adding he was bleeding profusely after the crash.
“The pilot, who was equipped with a pistol, asked the youngsters whether it was India or Pakistan. On this, one of them intelligently responded that it was India. The pilot, later identified as Wing Commander Abhi Nandan, shouted some slogans and asked which place exactly it was in India. To this, the same boy responded that it was Qilla’n.
Quoting an eye witness, the newspaper said the Indian pilot ran a distance of half a kilometre in backward direction while pointing his pistol towards the boys who were chasing him. During this brisk movement, he fired some more gunshots in the air to frighten them but to no avail, he said. Then he jumped into a small pond where he took out some documents and maps from his pockets, some of which he tried to swallow and soaked others in the water.
