Former High Commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria has revealed that after the 2019 Balakot Air Strike, then Pakistani Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa wanted to return the captured Indian IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, fearing “hard action” by India.
On February 26, 2019, the Indian Air Force had launched a tactical air strike in PoK’s Balakot to target terrorist camps.
Next day, Wing Commander Varthaman’s MiG-21 Bison shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet during an aerial dog-fight over the LoC. Later, his own MiG-21 Bison was also hit after which he ejected the aircraft and landed in PoK.
He was held captive by the Pakistani Army for around 60 hours before being handed over to India.
“…then Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and then Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa came to brief the MPs and said there is a serious danger of the crisis escalating and India taking hard action and therefore, we should return the pilot…,” Bisaria, who has written a book about his experiences in Pakistan, told news agency ANI.
In the book, titled “Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan”, Bisaria has also claimed that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI had tipped off India about an Al-Qaeda plot to carry out an attack in Kashmir in June 2019.
Speaking about PM Modi’s “Qatal ki raat” reference, the former High Commissioner to Pakistan said that the neighbouring country got Intel about India’s missile attack and Imran Khan wanted to speak to PM Modi but the latter didn’t take his call.
“PM Modi did mention this in his speech. He did refer to this episode but Imran Khan also referred to this episode in his own speech in Parliament, that he had made an attempt to talk to the Indian PM. There was a conversation in Pakistan’s Parliament also, which has been reported by a Pakistan MP…,” he added.
The then Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has reportedly told the country’s Parliament that he tried to speak to PM Modi hours before the Balakot air strike in 2019.