RAY OF HOPE

Pakistan Will Free Captured Indian Pilot: Prime Minister

Blindfolded Indian flyer was paraded by Pakistani military on video.

Pakistan will free the Indian pilot who was captured after his plane was shot down, the country’s prime minister has confirmed. Imran Khan said early Thursday that Pakistan will release the captured Indian pilot on Friday as a “peace gesture.” The move comes a day after Pakistan paraded the the pilot, blindfolded and with blood on his face, in a video shared by the country's information ministry. India described the images as a “vulgar display of an injured personnel.” Social-media users in both countries are urging their leaders to show restraint, with the hashtag #SayNoToWar. The shootdown follows an airstrike by India on Pakistan’s territory. India said it was targeting a terrorist training camp following a suicide bombing by a Pakistani-linked militant group that killed 40 Indian soldiers last week. The incidents have escalated tensions between the two nations, both of whom claim all of Kashmir, but control only parts of it.