Neither the blindfold nor the blood masked the dignity in Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman's calm, clear voice as he spoke to his captors, on camera.

He told them who he was, gave them his service number, and identified himself as a Hindu. When a gruff demand for more details followed -- "What else?" -- Wing Commander Varthaman replied coolly:

"I'm sorry sir...that's all I'm supposed to tell you."

His politeness was not reciprocated. No clear answer was offered when he made his own request for information, again with remarkable composure: "Am I with the Pakistani Army?"

Pakistan claimed on Wednesday it had shot down two Indian jets and arrested two pilots after striking non-military targets in India.

India soon responded: the external affairs ministry said Pakistan had, in fact, tried

unsuccessfully to target Indian military installations. It said it had lost a MiG 21 jet, but also that it had shot down a Pakistani fighter.

The ministry said one pilot was missing, and that it was "ascertaining the facts" after Pakistan's claim that he was in its custody.

The Indian statement did not explicitly name Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, a MiG-21 Bison pilot.

India and Pakistan are on edge after Indian Mirage 2000 fighters pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Pakistan 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 pre-emptive, non-military strike in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.