Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Thursday said Pakistan is willing to consider the return of the captured IAF pilot if it leads to “de-escalation” of tensions with India. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Thursday said Pakistan is willing to consider the return of the captured IAF pilot if it leads to “de-escalation” of tensions with India.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Thursday that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will be released on Friday. The Wing Commander has been in Pakistan Army’s custody after his aircraft was shot down on Wednesday when he engaged with Pakistan’s jets that had violated Indian air space.

In response to Pakistan’s attack on Wednesday, an IAF combat air patrol was immediately put up in the air to engage the Pakistani aircraft. Official sources said a Pakistani F-16 was brought down by IAF jets during the engagement, although the wreckage of the aircraft fell on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control.

Here are the key developments on Thursday:

* The Indian Army, Air Force and Navy held a joint press briefing on the security situation between the two countries at 7 pm today. Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor said there is enough evidence to show that F-16s were used in this mission through their electronic signatures. Pakistan, however, had claimed that no F-16 was part of the operation.

* Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced in Parliament that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman would be released on Friday.

* In his first statement since the capture of the IAF pilot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India “will fight, live, work and win” as one, and nobody can create hurdles in its march towards development. Later, at an official function, the Indian Prime Minister said, “Abhi abhi ek pilot project pura ho gaya. Abhi real karna hai, pehle toh practice thi (Just now one pilot project has been completed. Now we have to make it real, earlier it was just practice).”

* India demanded the immediate, and unharmed, return of the IAF pilot and asserted that there was no question of any deal, government sources told The Indian Express.

* Pakistan Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said the country was willing to consider the return of the captured IAF pilot if it leads to “de-escalation” of tensions with India.

* The father of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman said he was proud of his son’s bravery, and hoped for his safe return. “Thank you my friends for your concern and wishes. I thank God for his blessings, Abhi is alive, not injured, sound in mind, just look at the way he talked so bravely…a true soldier…we are so proud of him,” his father said.

* Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted that the Ministry of External Affairs will brief the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs on regarding the current situation vis-a-vis Pakistan at its meeting Friday.

* Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire and resumed mortar shelling on forward Indian posts and civilian areas along the Line of Control in Poonch district’s Krishna Ghati area, and Nowshera of adjoining Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir.

* In a statement, China said it was firm in its view that “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity” of all countries “must be respected.” “China believes that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected. We oppose any practices that violate the UN Charter and the norms of international law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said. China has singlehandedly blocked the listing of Masood Azhar as a “global terrorist” at the UN Security Council for the last 10 years.

* US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful that the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan will end soon. “We have reasonably attractive news from Pakistan and India. They have been going at it and we have been involved trying to have them stop. We have some reasonably decent news. I think hopefully that it’s going to come to an end,” Trump said at a press conference after his two-day meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

* US, UK and France moved United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a fresh proposal listing Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar as a “global terrorist”. At least three attempts in the last decade — in 2009, 2016 and 2017 — have been blocked by Beijing at Pakistan’s behest.

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