It’s a vignette known only to family and a few friends. But now, with the country gripped by events surrounding the dramatic capture and release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, maybe it’s time to tell it to a wider audience.
As The Hindu’s correspondent in Pakistan (1997-2000), and living in Islamabad, I was caught smack in the middle of the 1999 Kargil war. With Pakistan initially projecting it as a “mujahideen” versus Indian Army conflict, my reporting from Islamabad remained unaffected.
On May 27, 1999, Pakistan claimed to have shot down two aircraft — a MiG 21 and a MiG 27 — as India moved to clear the Kargil heights of Pakistani intruders. Flight Lieutenant K. Nachiketa, piloting the MiG 21, was taken prisoner, while Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja appeared to have been shot dead by Pakistani forces after being captured.
On June 3, then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced at a press conference that Flt. Lt. Nachiketa would be freed as a “goodwill gesture” (Prime Minister Imran Khan used the words “peace gesture” in the case of Wg. Cdr. Varthaman) and would be handed over to then Indian High Commissioner G. Parthasarathy inside the Pakistani Foreign Ministry at 7.30 p.m. (IST) with the media contingent in attendance.
Coming out of the press conference, I phoned Mr. Parthasarathy and said he would receive a call from the Pakistanis asking him to reach the Foreign Office and take custody of Flt. Lt. Nachiketa. “Please don’t go there. The intention is to embarrass you and India,” I told him and cut the call.
Alerted, the High Commissioner sought instructions from Delhi and told the Pakistanis that he would not go the Foreign Ministry and would not take custody of Flt. Lt. Nachiketa in the full glare of the media.
Things moved swiftly after that. Since it had been announced by Mr. Sharif, the Pakistani side got in touch with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which had set procedures in place. Three hours after being brought to the Foreign Ministry on Constitution Avenue, the ICRC allowed photographs of Flt. Lt. Nachiketa to be taken, but he did not speak to the waiting press. The smiling Flt. Lt., dressed in trousers and shirt and dignity intact, was pictured with Tariq Altaf, an Additional Secretary in the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.
A white Land Cruiser vehicle of the ICRC finally drove him to the Indian High Commission, where the High Commissioner and other senior officials were waiting for him, around 11 p.m. I was also waiting — to confirm his release and then file the report for the newspaper.
Flt. Lt. Nachiketa slept that night at the residence of the Indian Air Adviser “Jack” Jaiswal and when I met him the next day at the High Commission, he was full of questions. “How is it to report from Pakistan?” he asked me. “How were you treated?” I asked him. He only said, “It’s the first night I managed some sleep in all these days.” Nothing more, the rest was just polite chatter. He did not appear to have suffered any physical injuries. Later, he was driven across the Wagah border in a High Commission vehicle. Only four months before that, I had stood watching the Delhi-Lahore bus roll in from Attari to Wagah with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on board.
Twenty years on, India-Pakistan relations continue to be on a roller-coaster ride.