Pakistan returns captured Indian pilot, but shelling continues

Breaking News Emails

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 / Updated 

By Associated Press

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan handed over a captured Indian pilot on Friday while blistering cross-border attacks across the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir continued for a fourth straight day, even as the two nuclear-armed neighbors seek to defuse their most serious confrontation in two decades.

Tens of thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers face off along the Kashmir boundary known as the Line of Control, in one of the world’s most volatile regions.

On the Indian side of Pakistan’s border crossing at Wagah, turbaned Indian policemen lined the road on Friday before the pilot’s handover. A group of cheering Indians waved their country’s national flag and held up a huge garland of flowers to welcome him back.

Indian security forces in Wagah on Friday.Narinder Nanu / AFP – Getty Images

Tensions have been running high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday carrying out what India called a pre-emptive strike against militants blamed for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops. Pakistan retaliated, shooting down two Indian aircraft Wednesday and capturing a pilot.

Since the escalation, world leaders have scrambled to head off an all-out war on the Asian subcontinent. President Donald trump in Hanoi on Thursday said he had been involved in seeking to de-escalate the conflict.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan told lawmakers on Thursday, “We are releasing the Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture tomorrow.”

But India made it clear that the latest escalation has changed its strategy and that going forward, it will strike, including inside Pakistan, if they get information of an attack in the planning. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier Thursday warned “India’s enemies are conspiring to create instability in the country through terror attacks.”

source: nbcnews.com