Thousands gather at border to welcome back Indian pilot

WAGAH, India– Thousands of Indians, some waving flags and singing, gathered Friday to give a hero's welcome to an air force pilot due to be returned across the border after being shot down by Pakistan. 

Islamabad's "peace gesture" of freeing Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman comes after tensions with New Delhi over Kashmir escalated this week to their highest level in years. 

The fighter pilot of 16 years' experience from Chennai has emerged as the face of the latest standoff, which has seen the nuclear-armed rivals exchange rare aerial raids. 

Abhinandan's parents were given a standing ovation by fellow passengers as they boarded a flight to Amritsar near the Wagah border crossing to welcome their son. 

The highly symbolic Wagah crossing point, where the handover is due to take place, is famed for hosting colourful rival ceremonies by Indian and Pakistani soldiers each day at sundown. 

Patriotic spectators fill stadium-style stands on each side to cheer as goosestepping troops bring down their national flags in elaborate, competing performances. 

On Friday, thousands of people had crowded in early to get a glimpse of Abhinandan, clutching sweets and garlands as they waited for his return, an AFP reporter said. 

"Pakistan should learn its lesson. The film is not over yet. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi will teach them a lesson," one man at Wagah told Indian television. 

A group of schoolchildren brandished a painting of the pilot, along with saffron, white and green Indian flags and placards reading: "Hope for peace between India & Pakistan" and "Thank you Imran Khan", referring to Pakistan's prime minister. 
An old man with a white beard banged a drum as groups of young men sang and danced. 

"We are very happy that the hero of our country is coming back. We have come here to support him," another spectator who came to the Wagah border with his family told the ABP news channel. 

- Hero status - 

After Abhinandan was shot down on Wednesday in a dogfight with Pakistani aircraft, purported footage that went viral showed him being beaten by locals before Pakistani soldiers intervened. 

A video released by the Pakistani military later showed Abhinandan sipping tea, his face swollen and sporting bruises but otherwise collected and calm. 

His polite refusal to proffer more details than necessary -- "I am sorry major, I am not supposed to tell you this" -- won him particular sympathy in India. 

His father, a retired air force officer, told the Times of India newspaper, "Just look at the way he talked so bravely... a true soldier... we are proud of him." 

Social media has been abuzz with #GivebackAbhinandan and #Abhinandanmyhero hashtags elevating the pilot to national hero status. 

Diplomatic sources said they expected Abhinandan to be handed over to India at around 3.00-4.00 pm (1000-1100 GMT). 

Abhinandan was captured a day after Indian fighter planes bombed what India said was a militant camp in Pakistan, in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Kashmir on February 14 that killed 40 paramilitaries. 
He was among the fighter pilots scrambled to repel a Pakistani incursion over the border the next day. 
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03- DPRK state media says DPRK, U.S. will "continue productive dialogues" 

PYONGYANG, March 1 (Xinhua) : Leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States had "constructive and candid" talks in Hanoi Thursday and will "continue productive dialogues" to address issues of mutual concern, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday. 

"They had a constructive and candid exchange of their opinions over the practical issues arising in opening up a new era of the improvement of the DPRK-U.S. relations on the basis of the progress," the KCNA report said. 
The Hanoi summit "offered an important occasion for deepening mutual respect and trust and putting the relations between the two countries on a new stage," it added. 

Despite "antagonism and confrontation" deriving from seven-decade-long hostile relations and "inevitable hardships and difficulties" ahead, both sides could "create a significant advance in the DPRK-U.S. relations as desired by the peoples of the two countries if they firmly join hands to overcome hardships and difficulties with wisdom and patience," it said. 
"They agreed to keep in close touch with each other for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the epochal development of the DPRK-U.S. relations in the future, too, and continue productive dialogues for settling the issues discussed at the Hanoi Summit," the report said. 

DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly cut short their two-day summit Thursday without signing an agreement as planned previously. 

Trump said Thursday afternoon in Hanoi at a press briefing that the main impediment to a deal was Kim's requirement that the United States lift sanctions against Pyongyang "in their entirety" in exchange for denuclearizing a "large portion" of the DPRK's nuclear program, which was not acceptable by the United States. 

However, DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told a news conference early Friday morning that his country only asked for a partial lifting of sanctions at the meeting with Trump, contradicting what Trump said earlier. Enditem 
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