A free Indian pilot in Pakistan while violence rages in Kashmir: the norm

A pilot shot down in an air fight with a Pakistani plane returned to India on Friday, after being released in what Islamabad called a "peace gesture" following the biggest confrontation between the two countries in years.

New violence raged in Kashmir, with 11 people killed in the part of the territory of India's powder keg, suggesting that the soaring tensions caused by the deaths of 40 Indian soldiers in a suicide bombing last month may not be complete
Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, wounded Wednesday over Kashmir – divided between his nuclear-armed rivals since 1947 – crossed the Indian border on Friday at the Wagah border checkpoint, last Friday.
The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that he had been "treated with dignity and in accordance with international law" and that his release was "intended to defuse growing tensions with India".

SEE ALSO:Pakistan frees Indian pilot as "peace gesture"

Thousands of Indians, waving flags, singing and singing patriotic songs, had gathered at the crossing point on Friday afternoon, but the crowd was reduced after his release was inexplicably delayed by hours. Others have also danced and shouted slogans in New Delhi.
Abhinandan's mustachioed parents were cheered by pbadengers as they boarded a plane bound for Amritsar, near Wagah, to greet their son.
In India, the release of the experienced pilot was seen as a diplomatic victory, but New Delhi warned that his army remained in a "reinforced" state of alert.
On Thursday and Friday, the two countries continued to shoot at the checkpoint, the Kashmir separatist border, a mortar fire that killed four people on the Indian side.
Among them were three members of the same family – a mother and two children – when a mortar shell sprayed their home in Poonch District on Friday night, police said.
Indian troops also besieged a house in Handwara district, the only Muslim-majority state in India, claiming to have killed two militants inside.
However, one of them survived, said a police officer to AFP. A few hours later, when security forces entered to recover the bodies, the man emerged from the debris and opened fire, killing four soldiers before being shot.
"The influence of terrorists and terrorism has been reduced and it will be even worse, it is a new India," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday, facing tough elections.
"It is an India that will pay with interest the damage caused by the terrorists," he said.
After the pilot's release, he tweeted: "The nation is proud of your exemplary courage … Hello to the homeland!"
Indian Foreign Minister and former army chief Vijay Kumar Singh tweeted that the "welcome" publication of the pilot was "the first of many steps #Pakistan must take to strengthen its commitment to the peace".
"We need peace"
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule. Both claim it in full and have waged two wars on the Himalayan territory.
India has half a million soldiers in the party that it administers, with activists – backed by Islamabad, according to New Delhi – who are fighting for independence or for a merger with Pakistan .
Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died since the 1989 uprising. Last year, the past year was the deadliest in a decade: nearly 600 people were killed, causing the anger of the inhabitants.
"The poor are being killed and their homes are being destroyed … We need peace," AFP Nagina Bano, one of the 300 people who attended the funeral Friday, told AFP. burial of a woman killed during cross-border bombing.
A civilian was also killed during protests in Indian Kashmir, police said in AFP.
Alarming the international community, tensions escalated after the February 14 suicide bombing in Indian Kashmir, with the attack being claimed by a militant group based in Pakistan.
Twelve days later, Indian warplanes launched a strike inside an undisputed Pakistani territory, claiming to have hit a militant camp.
Islamabad, furious, denied any casualties or damage, but one day later, he launched his own foray into the HoC.
This sparked the air combat that ended in both countries claiming that they had shot down their war planes and capturing Abhinandan.
Tensions have pushed Pakistan to close its airspace, disrupting thousands of travelers around the world. Its main airports reopened on Friday.

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Pakistan-India ConflictPakistanIndiaAbhinandan Varthaman