Pak aircraft shot down, India seeks immediate return of captured IAF pilot

An Indian Air Force (IAF) officer was captured on Wednesday by Pakistan, which paraded him as a virtual prisoner of war, robbing some of the sheen of a spectacular aerial strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammad’s biggest training camp deep inside the neighbouring country a day earlier.

Pakistan had made light of the IAF action on Tuesday, but retaliated on Wednesday — first by unremitting gunfire across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and then sending fighter jets into Indian territory, targeting military installations. However, “in that aerial engagement, one Pakistan Air Force fighter aircraft was shot down by a MiG 21 Bison of the Indian Air Force. The Pakistani aircraft was seen by ground forces falling from the sky on the Pakistan side”, Raveesh Kumar, spokesman for the government, said in a statement.