Pakistan Releases Captured Indian Pilot

Captured Indian pilot Wing Commander Abhi Nandan (Picture: ISPR).

Pakistan has released a captured pilot, identified as Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, to Indian authorities at the Kashmir border.

Pakistan's Prime Minister.

On Thursday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said the pilot would be released as a "peace gesture", telling parliament that the country was focused on de-escalation after tensions between the two neighbour rose over the disputed Kashmir region.

"We are releasing the Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture tomorrow," Mr Khan said. He did not say whether the release was conditional.

Mr Khan also said that he feared on Wednesday night that India might launch a missile attack but the situation was later defused.

Video: Pakistan's Information Ministry tweeted "wreckages" of one Indian fighter jet.

World powers called for calm in the region after a suicide bombing two weeks ago killed more than 40 Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir territory it controls.

India responded with an airstrike on Pakistan on Tuesday - the first such raid since the two nations' 1971 war over territory that later became Bangladesh.

The situation then escalated further with Wednesday's aerial skirmish, which saw Pakistan say it shot down two Indian aircraft.

One jet crashed in the Pakistan-held part of Kashmir and the other in India-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan later aired a video of a man it identified as the Indian pilot and the aftermath of one crash.

India acknowledged one of its MiG-21s, a Soviet-era fighter jet, was "lost" in skirmishes with Pakistan.

India's Ministry of External Affairs said late on Wednesday that it "strongly objected to Pakistan's vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force", and that it expects his immediate and safe return.

India also said it shot down a Pakistan warplane, something Islamabad denied.

Both Indian and Pakistani officials reported small-arms fire and shelling along the Kashmir region into Thursday morning. There were no reported casualties.

The UK said it is working with allies and other members of the UN Security Council to find a way to calm the situation.