Published 16:48 IST, February 28th 2019
TITANIC WIN FOR INDIA: Pakistan to release IAF's Wing Commander Abhinandan tomorrow, crumbling under unprecedented pressure from India
In a titanic win for India, Pakistan has buckled under the relentless and unprecedented pressure mounted by India and has announced that it will release captured IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan tomorrow.
In a titanic win for India, Pakistan has buckled under the relentless and unprecedented pressure mounted by India and has announced that it will release captured IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan tomorrow.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan made the announcement in the Pakistani Parliament on Thursday, after his government's repeated attempts and statements using Wing Commander Abhinandan's capture to beg India to come to the negotiating table utterly failed, leaving Pakistan with no escape route.
Putting Pakistan on the ropes, India had on Wednesday summoned Pakistan's acting envoy and issued him a demarche ultimatum over the vulgar videos released by Pakistan of India's pilot and the treatment he had been subjected to which, among other things, is violative of the Geneva convention.
On Thursday, top sources in the Ministry of External Affairs had ruled out any deal with Pakistan over the Wing Commander's return, holding firm that Pakistan would have to release him as India had demanded - safely and immediately. The sources mentioned the IC-814 hijacking two decades earlier when India was forced into releasing captured terrorists who would later go on to perpetrate massive acts of terror.
A spooked Pakistan has closed its airspace and also issued a state of Emergency in its largest city Karachi following its failed attempt at intruding into India's airspace on Wednesday morning, where its F-16 squadron's design to attack India's military installations was repulsed and its fighter jets made to scarper by the Indian Air Force. One of Pakistan's US-made F-16s were shot down by Indian fighters. It was in this operation that Wing Commander Abhinandan's MIG-21 Bison went down.
Pakistan's ill-advised reprisal came after the Indian Air Force avenged the Jaish-e-Mohammed-perpetrated Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF Jawans were martyred with a precision strike decimating Pakistani terror bases across the LoC.
Updated 18:10 IST, February 28th 2019