India-Pakistan news: Imran Khan says Pakistan will release captured Indian pilot ‘as a peace gesture’
Steps taken to ease the tensions as Imran Khan calls for talks
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Your support makes all the difference.Pakistan has said it will release the Indian pilot that was captured yesterday as a “gesture of peace”, prime minister Imran Khan announced.
The pilot, who is currently in custody, will be allowed to leave on Friday as efforts to cool the crisis between the two nuclear-armed neighbours continues.
Locals were forced to flee from their homes in Kashmir as India and Pakistan exchanged gunfire through the night.
Jet fighters were seen over the mountainous region one day after the two nuclear-armed nations had claimed to have shot down each other’s warplanes.
There were no immediate reports of casualties but those living in the disputed region were seen fleeing the area with no imminent ceasefire in sight.
Members of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharitiya Janata Party (BJP) called for more military action, suggesting the conflict could worsen.
An Indian government source told The Independent that relations with Pakistan would not return to normal, even with the return of their pilot.
World powers have called on the nations to de-escalate the tensions which started after a suicide car bombing on 14 February killed more than 40 Indian paramilitary personnel.
But the risk of conflict rose dramatically on Tuesday when India launched an air strike into Pakistani territory on what it said was a militant training base – the first such raid since the two nations’ 1971 war over territory that later became Bangladesh.
New Delhi claimed at least 300 militants were killed in the strike, while Pakistan said no one was killed.
The situation escalated further yesterday when Pakistan said it had shot down an Indian aircraft and captured a pilot.
India acknowledged one of its jets was “lost” and that its pilot was “missing in action”.
India also said it shot down a Pakistani plane, something Islamabad denied.
Here is how we covered the day's events
Analysis: The Independent's Adam Withnall in Delhi
"The message to India from Pakistan’s Imran Khan this afternoon is a simple one: take back your pilot as a gesture of goodwill and let us go back to how things were one week ago, before this all started.
"With the international community clamouring for deescalation, that message is an alluring one. It allows Pakistan to appear reasonable, as though it is taking the course of peace.
"The problem from India’s perspective is that it doesn’t want to go back to how things were. In using airstrikes to target what it says was a terrorist training camp well inside Pakistani territory, India says it was taking the sort of counter-terrorism action that Pakistan should have taken itself long ago.
"Speaking to reporters a short while ago here in Delhi, an Indian government official accused Pakistan of deliberately creating “war hysteria” in order to distract from India’s core demand - that Pakistan take action against the militant groups working to destabilise Kashmir.
"India does not want to take military action against the Pakistani state - it is a “mature, responsible power”, the official said - and rejects the idea that the two countries are even engaged in a military escalation at all.
"But it also won’t rule out taking further action against militant targets within Pakistan. The release of the Indian pilot, though it will be celebrated wildly here in India, is almost certainly not going to change that."
Kashmir conflict: A potted history
India and Pakistan's dispute over Kashmir has a long and sometimes bloody history stretching back to the partition of India in the 1940s.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said the US continues to be “very engaged” with India and Pakistan and has spoken to leaders of both countries.
Mr Pompeo adds the US is hopeful can take down tensions between India and Pakistan for the time being.
The Pakistan army has launched a helicopter search for a British climber missing on a mountain after commercial air space was closed amid military tensions with India.
Tom Ballard, from Derbyshire, has been reported missing on Nanga Parbat, nicknamed Killer Mountain.
He had been climbing with Italian Daniele Nardi and the pair were making an ascent before they lost contact.
Plans for an initial search operation were prevented when Pakistan closed its air space after it shot down two Indian military planes, but two army helicopters were drafted in on Thursday.
With India and Pakistan standing on the brink of war this week, several false videos, pictures and messages circulated widely on social media, sparking anger and heightening tension in both countries.
The video of an injured pilot from a recent Indian air show and images from a 2005 earthquake have been taken out of context to attempt to mislead tens of millions on platforms like Twitter , Facebook and its messenger service, WhatsApp.
Pratik Sinha, co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, said it had received requests to verify news from journalists and people on social media.
It's been crazy since Tuesday. There is so much out there that we know is fake, but we're not able to fact-check all of it."
Bit of general knowledge about Kashmir - ten million people live in Indian Kashmir and more than 3 million in Pakistani Kashmir.
About 70 per cent are Muslims and the rest Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.
Muddassar Ahmed, the managing partner for Unitas Communications, has written a piece for The Independent's Voices desk about his opinion on the current situation:
India is welcoming Pakistan's decision to free a captured Indian pilot whose Mig-21 fighter was shot down during an aerial skirmish between the air forces of the two countries in disputed Kashmir.
Air vice marshal R.J.K. Kapoor, an Indian air force spokesman, says the Indian air force "is extremely happy and looks forward to the return of the Indian pilot."
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