Pakistan set to return captured Indian pilot

Pakistan’s military is set to return an Indian pilot captured after his fighter jet was downed in a confrontation with a Pakistani Air Force pilot.

Reuters reports that the exchange is set to happen Friday as the two countries have entered negotiations in an attempt to avert a fourth war since Pakistan became its own country in 1956.

{mosads}Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, the captured Indian pilot, was reportedly taken by Pakistani military forces after his MiG fighter was engaged in a dogfight with a Pakistani aircraft and crashed in Pakistani territory.

Varthaman was reportedly captured by Pakistani villagers after his crash. They handed him over to military officers.

“As a gesture of peace and to de-escalate matters, the Indian pilot who is under arrest with us will be released today in the afternoon at the Wagah border,” Pakistan’s foreign minister said Friday, according to Reuters.

India and Pakistan’s latest conflict surrounds an Indian airstrike allegedly targeting a militia camp following a suicide attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary officers in the disputed region of Kashmir.

The United States and other nations are reportedly involved in mediating the dispute in an attempt to avoid a war between the two nuclear powers.