British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, left, addresses a news conference with Pakistan's adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016. Johnson expressed concern over the Kashmir escalation and appealed to the two South Asian countries "to maintain a positive dialogue" to resolve the dispute of the territory, which is split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Britain's top diplomat on Thursday urged Pakistan and India to find a lasting solution for Kashmir a day after a deadly exchange of fire killed more than a dozen people in the disputed Himalayan region.

But after meeting with Pakistani officials, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told reporters in Islamabad that it was up to the two South Asian countries to resolve the crisis and that Britain should not "prescribe a solution or act as a mediator."

India meanwhile summoned a Pakistani diplomat to lodge a protest over what it said were continued violations of a 2003 cease-fire. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said Pakistani troops had helped "terrorists" infiltrate Kashmir, where they killed three Indian soldiers and mutilated one of their bodies, which was found Tuesday.

India had vowed to retaliate after the body was found, and on Wednesday the two sides blasted away at each other across the Line of Control, the latest in a series of violent exchanges in recent weeks. Indian fire struck a bus on the Pakistani side, killing at least 10 people. Another two Pakistani civilians and three Pakistani soldiers were also killed. There was no immediate word of Indian casualties.

The nuclear-armed rivals each claim Kashmir in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over the dispute.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a high-level security meeting to review the Kashmir situation on Thursday and said "we will never abandon our Kashmiri brethren in their freedom struggle," according to a government statement.

Pakistan's air force chief Sohail Aman meanwhile warned India against escalating the dispute over Kashmir into full-scale war, saying that Pakistani troops "know full well how to deal with them."

Associated Press writer Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi contributed. </s> The pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, has become the face of the crisis since he was shot down in a rare aerial engagement between the South Asian neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan said Thursday, February 28, it will release a captured Indian pilot in a "peace gesture," taking a step towards rapprochement as clashes between the nuclear-armed rivals ignited fears of a disastrous conflict.

The pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, has become the face of the crisis since he was shot down in a rare aerial engagement between the South Asian neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir on Wednesday, February 27.

With anger boiling over his capture in India, analysts have touted him as a potential trump card for Islamabad.

"As a peace gesture we are releasing the Indian pilot tomorrow," Prime Minister Imran Khan told a joint session of parliament.

Parliamentarians stamped their feet in approval at his statement, the first sign of a potential thaw after a dangerous sequence of events between the two countries sent tensions soaring.

Tit-for-tat raids across their hair-trigger border have alarmed world powers including China and the US, who have urged restraint.

Pakistan has said it downed two Indian fighters, while India confirmed it had lost one plane and claimed it had shot down a Pakistani jet.

"I am afraid of miscalculations," Khan said. "We should not even think of war, especially in view of the lethality of the weapons that we have."

However he warned that his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi should not misconstrue his desire to de-escalate as "weakness."

"India must know that we will be forced to strongly retaliate against any Indian action in the future," he said.

Wednesday's dogfight and the pilot's capture sparked fears of India and Pakistan – who have fought two wars and countless deadly skirmishes over the Himalayan region – entering a cycle of retaliation and counterattacks that could spiral out of control.

Pakistan has closed its airspace indefinitely, and the army said Thursday its troops were on high alert along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides Kashmir.

Authorities have tightened security across the country, with hospitals on alert and leave for police and other security officials cancelled in some cities.

With anger boiling in India over Pakistan's capture of the pilot, Modi called on his citizens Thursday to "stand as a wall" in the face of an enemy that "seeks to destabilize India."

Analysts have said the pilot's fate, and his safe release, could prove central to the neighbors pulling back from the brink.

US President Donald Trump has voiced optimism that the tensions could soon be resolved.

"We have had some reasonably decent news... Hopefully that's going to be coming to an end," he said of the crisis, speaking to reporters in Hanoi after a summit there with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The confrontation erupted after a suicide attack in Indian-held Kashmir killed 40 Indian troops on February 14.

New Delhi blamed the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group for the attack. Twelve days later Indian warplanes launched a strike inside Pakistani territory, hitting what it said was a militant training camp.

An infuriated Islamabad denied major casualties or damage, but a day later launched its own incursion across the Line of Control which sparked the dogfight that ended in Abhinandan's capture.

A viral video apparently taken shortly after his plane was shot down purportedly showed Abhinandan being dragged and beaten by a group of men as Pakistani soldiers intervened, shouting "Stop! Stop!"

Mohammad Faisal, the Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters Thursday that the pilot had "some mishap before our officers reached there because he was caught by the public."

But he stressed the pilot was now "with us, he is safe and in good condition."

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

He thanked the "thorough gentlemen" who rescued him from the mob and complimented the tea as "fantastic." It was unclear if he had been coerced to speak.

Kashmir has been divided and disputed by India and Pakistan since 1947. The two countries have fought two of their 3 wars over the region. – Rappler.com </s> ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's prime minister pledged on Thursday his country would release a captured Indian jetfighter pilot the following day, a move that could help defuse the most-serious confrontation in two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Prime Minister Imran Khan made the announcement in an address to both houses of Parliament, saying he tried to reach his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Wednesday with a message that he wants to de-escalate tension.

There was no immediate reaction from India, though Modi earlier in the day warned that "India's enemies are conspiring to create instability in the country through terror attacks."

"We are releasing the Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture tomorrow," Khan told lawmakers. He did not say whether the release was conditional.

The Pakistani premier also said that he had feared Wednesday night that India might launch a missile attack, but the situation was later defused. He did not elaborate.

World powers have called on the nations to de-escalate the tensions gripping the contested region since a Feb. 14 suicide bombing killed over 40 Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir in territory it controls. India responded with a pre-dawn airstrike on Tuesday inside Pakistan, the first such raid since the two nations' 1971 war over territory that later became Bangladesh.

The situation then escalated further with Wednesday's aerial skirmish, which saw Pakistan say it shot down two Indian aircraft, one of which crashed in Pakistan-held part of Kashmir and the other in India-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan later aired a video of a man it identified as the Indian pilot.

India acknowledged one of its MiG-21s, a Soviet-era fighter jet, was "lost" in skirmishes with Pakistan. India's Ministry of External Affairs said late Wednesday that it "strongly objected to Pakistan's vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force," and that it expects his immediate and safe return.

India also said it shot down a Pakistani warplane, something Islamabad denied.

Kashmir has been divided but claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan since almost immediately after the two countries' creation in 1947. They have fought three wars against each other, two directly dealing with the disputed region.

Both Indian and Pakistani officials reported small-arms fire and shelling along the Kashmir region into Thursday morning. There were no reported casualties.

Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, Ashok Sharma and Emily Schmall in New Delhi, Roshan Mughal in Muzafarabad, Pakistan, Adam Schreck in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. </s> Boris Johnson (centre) speaks at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on November 24, 2016 (AFP Photo/Aamir Qureshi)

Islamabad (AFP) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called for an end to violence in Kashmir during a visit to Islamabad Thursday, warning tensions between India and Pakistan are holding the region back from becoming an "incredible boomzone".

Johnson, who said he was visiting Pakistan for the first time, spoke a day after at least nine people were killed in Pakistani-held Kashmir when a civilian bus was hit by cross-border fire.

The deadly incident, which came after months of dangerous tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, saw Pakistani and Indian military officials speak via a special hotline, according to the Pakistani military, which said it reserves "the right to respond".

Johnson warned former colonial power Britain could not act as a mediator in the nearly 70-year-old dispute over the Himalayan region, saying it must be up to India and Pakistan to find a "lasting solution".

He voiced concern over incidents "on both sides" of the de facto Kashmir border, the Line of Control (LoC).

"We call for an end to the violence and for both sides to exercise restraint," he said.

Johnson also lamented the "mutual sequestration" of the Indian and Pakistani economies.

"Look at the incredible human potential of Pakistan and its neighbours... and then imagine what the future could be like if this was sorted out. What an incredible boomzone it could be."

Tensions in Kashmir reached dangerous levels in September, after India blamed Pakistani militants for a raid on an army base that killed 19 soldiers.

India said it had responded by carrying out "surgical strikes" across the heavily militarised border, sparking fury from Islamabad, which denied they took place.

There have since been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing, with both sides reporting deaths including of civilians.

After Wednesday's shooting Pakistani authorities closed the road leading to the scenic Neelum Valley, a popular tourist destination near the LoC, for security reasons.

Residents told AFP they had fled the valley fearing for their lives after repeated shellings, seeking shelter in the region's main city Muzaffarabad.

"I along with my wife and six children travelled by foot through the night," said resident Tasawar Shah.

The Indian foreign ministry Thursday also accused Pakistan of targeting civilians in villages along the LoC, and of supporting "armed terrorists" it said had crossed the border earlier in the week and killed three Indian soldiers.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since British rule ended in 1947. Both claim the territory in full and have fought two wars over the mountainous region.

Rebel groups have for decades fought Indian soldiers for independence for the region or its merger with Pakistan. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians.

Johnson, in Pakistan for a two-day visit, also spoke about US President-elect Donald Trump's campaign threats to reconsider defending NATO allies unless they up defence spending.

"We need a strong NATO alliance and I think the president-elect is quite right to draw attention to the need to finance that alliance properly," he said. </s> Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan told a joint session of Parliament that IAF's captured pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will be released on Friday as a gesture of peace.

"In our desire for peace, I announce that tomorrow, and as a first step to open negotiations, Pakistan will be releasing the Indian Air Force officer in our custody," PM Khan said.

The gesture is greeted with near unanimous support in the parliament.

Addressing a joint session of the National Assembly, Khan said the India-Pakistan situation should not "get out of hand" otherwise "Pakistan will have to retaliate," the Dawn reported.

"Countries are ruined because of miscalculation," said Khan. Alleging "war hysteria" in India, he said: "I'm afraid there might be a miscalculation.

"War is not a solution. If India takes any action, we will have to retaliate."

The joint session of Parliament was called to discuss the rising tensions with India.

"The only purpose of our strike (on India on Wednesday) was to demonstrate our capability and will," said the Prime Minister. "We did not want to inflict any casualty on India as we wanted to act in a responsible manner."

He said he tried to call Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the telephone on Wednesday because "escalation is not in our interests nor in India's".

The surprise announcement came barely an hour after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Prime Minister Khan is ready to talk to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to de-escalate Indo-Pak tensions.

The announcement was greeted by thumping of desks by Pakistani lawmakers.

Indian and Pakistani air force engaged in "aerial engagement" on Wednesday, a day after Indian fighter jets bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp in Balakot.

On Wednesday morning, Pakistani jets entered Indian airspace in the Jammu sector, and Indian Air Force fighter jets chased them. Abhinandan Varthaman's MiG21 Bison jet crossed into Pakistani airspace while chasing away a Pakistan Air Force jet and was shot down. </s> ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Wednesday (Feb 27) it shot down two Indian warplanes in its airspace over disputed Kashmir, in a dramatic escalation of a confrontation that has ignited fears of an all-out conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

One Indian pilot was captured, a Pakistani military spokesman said, adding that one aircraft had fallen in Pakistani-held Kashmir, while the other fell on the Indian side of the heavily militarised de facto border dividing the Himalayan territory.

Indian sources confirmed Pakistani fighter jets had violated airspace over Indian Kashmir, but said they were forced back over the LoC, and there was no immediate response to the claim the planes had been shot down.

The incident is the latest in a dangerous sequence of events between the two countries, whose ties have been under intense strain since a Feb 14 suicide bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed 40 troops.

New Delhi had promised to act, and on Tuesday its warplanes flew into Pakistani airspace and struck what it said was a camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the militant group that claimed the Kashmir bombing.

It was India's first air strike on Pakistani soil since the neighbours fought a war in 1971 - when neither had nuclear weapons.

Islamabad, while denying the Indian strike caused any major damage or casualties, quickly vowed to retaliate, fuelling fears of a disastrous confrontation in South Asia.

"One Indian pilot arrested by troops on ground while two in the area," he added, without elaborating.

The Pakistani foreign office also released a statement saying that the air force "undertook strikes" on Wednesday - but said they were across the border, known as the Line of Control (LoC), in Indian Kashmir.

The foreign office did not elaborate on what it meant by "strikes" and did not mention shooting down planes.

It said the strikes were aimed at a "non military target", adding: "We have no intention of escalation".

Earlier on Wednesday, the Indian foreign minister sought to ease the situation by downplaying Tuesday's strike, repeating Indian claims that it had been a pre-emptive attack on JeM as the group planned further assaults.

"India does not wish to see further escalation of this situation. India will continue to act with responsibility and restraint," Sushma Swaraj said during talks in China with her counterparts from Beijing and Moscow.

The US, along with China and the European Union, have called for cooler heads to prevail.

"We encourage India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, and avoid escalation at any cost," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after speaking with his counterparts from both countries.

Pompeo added that he stressed to Pakistan's foreign minister "the priority of de-escalating current tensions by avoiding military action, and the urgency of Pakistan taking meaningful action against terrorist groups operating on its soil."

India had been vague over the exact location of Tuesday's strike, with analysts suggesting it was signalling to Pakistan that it does not want an all-out conflict.

Both sides have said that Indian warplanes penetrated as far as Balakot, a heavily forested region in northwestern Pakistan near the border with Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Balakot residents told AFP they heard explosions in the night, and that one person received minor injuries while no buildings were destroyed.

An AFP journalist who visited the site where the military and residents said the payload was dropped could see a large crater and trees snapped in half, and three mud houses, one with a collapsed wall, nearby.

The confrontation represents the first major foreign policy crisis for Pakistani premier Imran Khan, who is believed to be close to the powerful military and who came to power last year vowing to seek dialogue with New Delhi.

In a sign of how quickly the situation could spiral, Pakistan's military spokesman alluded to its nuclear arsenal Tuesday, saying that Khan had also convened a meeting Wednesday of the National Command Authority, the body which oversees its nuclear weapons.

Pakistan has denied involvement in the Kashmir bombing on February 14.

While India has consistently accused its neighbour of supporting extremist groups, Pakistan has equally vehemently denied any role in attacks in India and its only Muslim-majority state, Kashmir.

The Himalayan region has been divided between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947. They have fought two of their three wars over the territory.

Previously, the US and other members of the international community have acted to defuse tensions.

"If I were Washington, I'd be in overdrive making phone calls and signalling that it wants tensions to be de-escalated now," said Moeed Yusuf, an expert at the US Institute of Peace in Washington.

"The risks of letting this play out are too great." </s> Pakistan is set to release a captured Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot today as "a peace gesture", but India yesterday indicated it was not in the mood for reconciliation, saying its military remains on "high alert" and reiterating that Pakistan was the aggressor.

The offer to release Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman came a day after the nuclear-armed neighbours exchanged heavy fire on the ground and in the air.

The pilot was captured by Pakistan following a dog fight between Indian and Pakistani air force jets on Wednesday in the worst escalation of tensions in nearly two decades and their first aerial combat since 1971.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday offered an unconditional release of the pilot, who has emerged as the human face of the conflict and triggered anger and concern in India for his safety.

"We have caught an India pilot, as a peace gesture we will release him," Mr Khan told Pakistan's Parliament yesterday, while warning that his efforts to de-escalate tensions should not be seen as a sign of "weakness".

"I am afraid of miscalculations. We should not even think of war, especially in view of the lethality of the weapons that we have," Mr Khan said.

But India, while thanking Islamabad for its decision to release the IAF pilot, revealed that its army, navy and air force were on "high state of preparedness". Indian officials also said that Pakistan was the aggressor and blamed it for launching air strikes on an Indian military installation. Pakistan has denied the accusation.

"There is high alert along the Line of Control. The mechanised forces are placed on standby. I wish to assure our nation we are fully prepared and there is a heightened state of preparedness," Major-General Surinder Singh Bahl of the Indian Army told a press briefing.

Navy Rear-Admiral D. S. Gujral said the Indian Navy "remains ready on surface, under sea and air" against Pakistan.

Hostilities between the two countries started rising after India launched air strikes against what it said was a terror camp belonging to the Jaish e Mohammed (JeM) group in Pakistan in retaliation for a terror attack in Kashmir that killed 40 paramilitary soldiers. JeM had taken credit for the terror attack.

India on Wednesday had also shared a dossier consisting of what it said were "specific details of JeM complicity in the Pulwama terror attacks and the presence of JeM terror camps and its leadership in Pakistan", and that it had sought "verifiable action" from Pakistan.

In a further sign that India was not in the mood to back down, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is facing a general election in April or May, adopted an aggressive tone yesterday.

"When the enemy tries to destabilise India through a terrorist attack, their motive is also to stop the progress of the country. We have to stand like a wall against their motives," he said during a video conference address to members of his Bharatiya Janata Party.

"The country has a new confidence," he added.

Mr Modi did not directly respond to an offer for dialogue from Mr Khan.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, and have struggled with their bilateral relations.

New Delhi and Islamabad signed a ceasefire agreement in 2003 but have continued to exchange fire from time to time along the Line of Control or the de facto border between the two countries. India has often blamed Pakistan for using terror as a state policy and has predicated any bilateral dialogue on action against terror groups operating in Pakistan.

Pakistan, on its part, has maintained that Kashmir is the key issue between the two countries, a stance that has prevented any meaningful dialogue between their governments.

Analysts said the pilot's release would not de-escalate current tensions.

"I don't see any substantial change with the IAF pilot being returned," said Dr D. Suba Chandran of the National Institute of Advanced Studies.

"But with this, in Pakistan, Imran Khan is being projected as a statesman and Modi as the aggressor. This is the strategy." </s> ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's prime minister pledged on Thursday his country would release a captured Indian fighter pilot, a move that could help defuse the most serious confrontation in two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Prime Minister Imran Khan made the announcement in an address to both houses of Parliament, saying he tried to reach his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Wednesday with a message that he wants to de-escalate tensions.

"We are releasing the Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture tomorrow," Khan told lawmakers. He did not say whether the release was conditional.

An Indian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly, warned that even if the pilot is returned home, New Delhi would not hesitate to strike its neighbor first if it feared a similar militant attack was looming. Modi earlier in the day warned that "India's enemies are conspiring to create instability in the country through terror attacks."

Khan also said that he had feared Wednesday night that India might launch a missile attack, but the situation was later defused. He did not elaborate.

"Pakistan wants peace, but it should not be treated as our weakness," Khan said "The region will prosper if there is peace and stability. It is good for both sides."

Meanwhile, fresh skirmishes erupted Thursday between Indian and Pakistani soldiers along the so-called Line of Control that divides disputed Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

India's army said Pakistani soldiers were targeting nearly two dozen Indian forward points with mortar and gunfire. Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman, called it an "unprovoked" violation of the 2003 cease-fire accord between the two countries. He said Indian soldiers were responding to ongoing Pakistani attacks along the highly militarized de facto frontier.

A young woman was killed and two others, including an off-duty soldier, were wounded in the shelling in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

World powers have called on the nations to de-escalate the tensions gripping the contested region since a Feb. 14 suicide bombing killed over 40 Indian paramilitary troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India responded with a pre-dawn airstrike on Tuesday inside Pakistan, the first such raid since the two nations' 1971 war over territory that later became Bangladesh.

The situation then escalated further with Wednesday's aerial skirmish, which saw Pakistan say it shot down two Indian aircraft, one of which crashed in Pakistan-held part of Kashmir and the other in India-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan later aired a video of a man it identified as the Indian pilot.

India acknowledged one of its MiG-21s, a Soviet-era fighter jet, was "lost" in skirmishes with Pakistan. India's Ministry of External Affairs said late Wednesday that it "strongly objected to Pakistan's vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force," and that it expects his immediate and safe return.

India also said it shot down a Pakistani warplane, something Islamabad denied.

Kashmir has been divided but claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan since almost immediately after the two countries' creation in 1947. They have fought three wars against each other, two directly dealing with the disputed region.

Both Indian and Pakistani officials reported small-arms fire and shelling along the Kashmir region into Thursday morning. There were no reported casualties.

Authorities in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir closed all schools and educational institutions in the region and are urged parents to keep their children at home amid mounting tension with neighboring India. Pakistan's airspace remained closed for a second day Thursday, snarling air traffic.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal acknowledged his country received a "dossier" from India about the Feb. 14 attack. He refused to provide details about the information that New Delhi has shared.

World leaders weighing in on the tension included President Donald Trump, who began remarks at a news conference Thursday in Vietnam after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by focusing on India and Pakistan.

"I think hopefully that's going to be coming to an end," Trump said, without elaborating. "It's been going on for a long time — decades and decades. There's a lot of dislike, unfortunately, so we've been in the middle trying to help them both out, see if we can get some organization and some peace, and I think probably that's going to be happening."

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also said Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs, planned to come to Islamabad with an urgent message from the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Modi, in his first remarks since the pilot's capture, gave a rallying speech ahead of elections in the coming months.

"Our defense forces are serving gallantly at the border," he told tens of thousands gathered across the country to listen to him in a videoconference from New Delhi. "The country is facing challenging times and it will fight, live, work and win unitedly."

Just weeks before general elections are due in India, the head of Modi's party in India's Karnataka state, B.S. Yeddyurappa, said India's pre-dawn airstrikes in Pakistan on Tuesday would help the party at the polls.

The violence Wednesday marked the most serious escalation of the long-simmering conflict since 1999, when Pakistan's military sent a ground force into Indian-controlled Kashmir at Kargil. That year also saw an Indian fighter jet shoot down a Pakistani naval aircraft, killing all 16 on board.

This latest wave of tension between the two rivals first began after the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing on Indian paramilitary forces on the Indian side of Kashmir that killed more than 40 troops.

India long has accused Pakistan of cultivating such militant groups to attack it. Pakistan has said it was not involved in that attack and was ready to help New Delhi in the investigation.

Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India; Ashok Sharma and Emily Schmall in New Delhi; Roshan Mughal in Muzafarabad, Pakistan; Adam Schreck in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. </s> Pakistan will release the Indian fighter pilot captured after his plane was shot down earlier this week in the disputed Kashmir region.

Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Thursday during a parliamentary speech that it will turn over Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman on Friday as a "peace gesture" towards its nuclear-armed neighbor. "In our desire of peace, I announce that tomorrow (Friday), and as a first step to open negotiations (with India), Pakistan will be releasing the Indian Air Force officer in our custody,” Khan said.

Varthaman was captured Wednesday after flying over the Line of Control, the de-facto border in the disputed Kashmir region, and into the airspace of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. A second Indian fighter jet was also shot down during the skirmish, but crashed in India-controlled Kashmir. New Delhi also claims it shot down a Pakistani fighter jet, a claim denied by Islamabad.

The announcement came just a few hours after U.S. President Donald Trump indicated to reporters in Hanoi that the United States was playing a role to help lower tensions between the South Asian nuclear armed rivals. “We have reasonably attractive news from Pakistan and India. They have been going at it, we have been involved in trying to help them stop. And we have some reasonably decent news. I think, hopefully that will be coming to an end,” Trump noted.

 

 U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Thursday on a flight from Vietnam to Manila he “spent a good deal of time” speaking Wednesday night with the leaders of India and Pakistan. Pompeo said the conversations were aimed at “making sure there was a good information exchange” between the leaders and encouraging them "not to take any action that would escalate and greatly increase risk.”

The recent developments involving both countries will also likely be discussed Thursday morning when U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs David Hale meets with Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Asad Majeed Khan at the State Department in Washington.

Pakistan closed off its civilian airspace after the aerial firefight, a decision that forced Thai Airlines to cancel all flights to and from Bangkok to most of the major cities in Europe, leaving nearly 5,000 passengers scrambling to find alternative flights. Thai Airlines later received permission from China to fly over its airspace.

Pakistan and India have moved closer to the brink of war since 40 Indian paramilitary forces were killed in a suicide attack in the town of Pulwama in India-controlled Kashmir on February 14. New Delhi has accused Pakistan of shielding the militant group Jaish e Mohammad, which has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry says it has received a dossier from India about the attack.

Indian jets entered Pakistani airspace Tuesday, for the first time since 1971 when the two countries went to war, to destroy what they said were JeM’s training camps in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The rivals have gone to war three times since achieving independence from Britain in 1947

The two sides briefly exchanged fire across the contested border in Kashmir on Thursday. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi says his Saudi counterpart, Adel al-Jubeir, will arrive in Islamabad later Thursday carrying a special message from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Pakistani Chief of Air Staff Sohail Aman warns India not to escalate tensions in the disputed territory of Kashmir under the threat of a full-scale war. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urges both sides to restrain themselves while on a diplomatic mission to Islamabad.