Pakistan 'willing to return captured Indian pilot' to ease tensions over Kashmir

Pakistan is prepared to return the Indian pilot shot down and captured this week if it helped ease the ongoing crisis with its neighbour, its foreign minister said today.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told local television station Geo TV on Thursday: "We are willing to return the captured Indian pilot if it leads to de-escalation."

He also said the Saudi foreign minister was expected to visit Pakistan with a special message from Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who visited both Pakistan and India earlier this month.

It comes a day after Islamabad said it shot down two Indian warplanes and captured a pilot in the disputed region of Kashmir.

Footage circulated by Pakistan military shows a man who identified himself as the pilot of the Indian aircraft shot down on Wednesday
AP

World leaders have urged peace from India and Pakistan as tensions escalate between the two nuclear powers.

On Thursday morning troops from India and Pakistan briefly exchanged fire in Poonch, a district in Kashmir, according to a statement from the Indian army.

Tensions have escalated in the contested region since a February 14 suicide car bombing killed more than 40 Indian paramilitary personnel.

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

The situation escalated with Wednesday's aerial skirmish, as Pakistan said it had shot down two Indian aircraft, one of which crashed in the Pakistan-held part of Kashmir and the other in India-controlled Kashmir.

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

India also said it shot down a Pakistani plane, something Islamabad denied.

Pakistan's military later circulated a video of a man who identified himself as the Indian pilot, sipping tea and responding to questions, mostly by saying: "You know I can't answer that."

He appeared in good health as he was questioned about his home town, his aircraft and his mission.

Indian and Pakistani officials reported small-arms fire and shelling along the Kashmir region into Thursday.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday there would be some “reasonably decent news” on the ongoing conflict.

"They have been going at it and we have been involved in trying to have them stop," Trump said.

Stranded passengers wait at the check-in area at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok on February 28.
AFP/Getty Images

"We have been in the middle trying to help them both out."

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for talks between the two nations.

Pakistan said the firing began overnight. "The firing continued in intervals throughout the night. It was moderate. Even now it's continuing," said Shaukat Yusufzai, an administration official in the Pakistan-controlled part of Poonch.

Pakistan has shut its airspace in response to the strikes, forcing commercial airlines to reroute.

Pakistani soldiers stand next to what Pakistan says is the wreckage of an Indian fighter jet shot down in Pakistan controled Kashmir at Somani area in Bhimbar district near the Line of Control.
AFP/Getty Images

Thai Airways International announced on Thursday that it had cancelled flights to Pakistan and Europe, which left thousands of passengers stranded in Bangkok.

"Last night there were about 5,000 passengers who came to check-in but unable to fly, mostly Thai Airways," Colonel Umnart Chomshai, superintendent of tourism police at Suvarnabhumi Airport, told Reuters.

Another airport official said a help centre had been set up for stranded travellers.

Thai Airways said it would resume flights later on Thursday after China granted permission to use its airspace for nearly a dozen flights to Europe scheduled to leave on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

Many airlines route flights over Pakistan and the closure of its airspace caused major disruptions on Wednesday.

Emirates and Qatar Airways suspended flights to Pakistan and others, such as Singapore Airlines and British Airways, were forced to reroute flights.

On Thursday, Singapore Airlines said all of its Europe-bound flights would now continue as planned, without the need for refuelling stops, and they would reroute to avoid the affected airspace as necessary.

Malaysia Airlines said on its website it was not currently flying over the affected airspace and was avoiding Pakistan and northern India for flights to and from Europe until further notice.

With a general election due in India by May, an upsurge in nationalism from any conflict with Pakistan could become a key factor, potentially favoring Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Late on Wednesday BS Yeddyurappa, a BJP leader in the southern state of Karnataka, said India's strike inside Pakistani territory would help the party to win back power in the state - the first such comment from a member of the ruling party.

"This has brought a pro-Modi wave all through the country," he told reporters. "The effect of this will be seen in the elections."

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from British colonial rule in 1947, two over Kashmir, and went to the brink of a fourth in 2002 after a Pakistani militant attack on India's parliament.

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