Fresh video shows IAF pilot Abhinandan 'safe' in Pakistani custody

Radio Pakistan has released another video of Indian Air Force's Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman in Pakistani custody after his plane was shot down on Wednesday.

In the video, a calm and composed Abhinandan, having a cup of tea, says the "officers of the Pakistani army looked after him very well". The Indian government on Wednesday afternoon confirmed that a MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft of the IAF and its pilot were missing after an air-to-air engagement with Pakistan Air Force jets on a bombing mission.

In the video, when Abhinandan is asked which place he hails from, he replied coolly, "Am I supposed to tell you this?" and further added he is from "down south." When asked which aircraft he was flying, Abhinandan replied, " I am not supposed to tell you this but I am sure you have found the wreckage". He did not answer when asked what his mission was.

Pakistan Armed Forces spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted that there is only one IAF pilot under Pakistan army’s custody and he is being "treated as per norms of military ethics". The Pakistan armed forces had claimed earlier that they had shot down two Indian aircraft inside the Pakistan airspace.

India and Pakistan are on edge after Indian Mirage 2000 fighters pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp in a "pre-emptive, non-military strike" in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday, 12 days after the terrorist group killed 40 Indian soldiers in a suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir.

India has long accused Pakistan of abetting cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, and had vowed to avenge the bombing on February 14. It announced that a large number of terrorists were killed in Tuesday's air strike.

—THE WEEK has decided not to use any videos of Wing Commander Abhinandan released by Pakistan media