Washington, February 28: Amid the escalating tension between India and Pakistan due to the Pulwama terror attacks and the action that followed afterwards, granddaughter of former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto – author Fatima Bhutto – on Wednesday had asked Pakistan Premier Imran Khan to release the captured IAF pilot. The Indian Air Force pilot was captured Pakistani armed forces on Wednesday, following an air strike in Rajouri district in which India’s MiG 21 Bison was hit and the pilot landed across the Line of Control.

Expressing her opinion through her op-ed in the New York Times, Bhutto wrote, “I and many other young Pakistanis have called upon our country to release the captured Indian pilot as a gesture of our commitment to peace, humanity and dignity.” She further wrote, “We have spent a lifetime at war. I do not want to see Pakistani soldiers die. I do not want to see Indian soldiers die. We cannot be a subcontinent of orphans.” IAF Pilot in Pakistan Custody: Will Think About Releasing Captured Pilot After De-Escalation, Says Pak Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. 

The niece of Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto slammed Pakistan administration stating that uncertainty in Pakistan had led to a generation where people have no tolerance, no appetite, for jingoism of war. Bhutto said, "My generation of Pakistanis have fought for the right to speak, and we are not afraid to lend our voices to that most righteous cause: peace. But our long history with military dictatorships and experience of terrorism and uncertainty means that my generation of Pakistanis have no tolerance, no appetite, for jingoism of war.”

The daughter of Murtaza Bhutto – son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto – opined that she has never seen her country at war with India on Twitter and said that a large section of the population was against the escalation of tensions. She said, “I have never seen my country at peace with its neighbour. But never before have I seen a war played out between two nuclear-armed states with Twitter accounts.” India-Pakistan Tension: Blacklist Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Masood Azhar, UK, US and France Tells UN Security Council.

With the IAF pilot arrested in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir on Wednesday, India has demanded ‘immediate and safe return’ of the pilot. The IAF personnel’s MiG was crashed after following a fierce engagement between air forces of the two sides along the Line of Control. Due to this, the tensions escalated after since the February 14 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed. India had bombed and destroyed JeM's biggest training camp in Balakot, around 80 km from the Line of Control early Tuesday, as an after reaction.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 28, 2019 10:44 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).