When a Pakistani pilot helped an IAF pilot evade torture

26-year-old Nachiketa was assigned the task of hitting Pakistani posts in Kargil

Air Commodore Kaiser Tufail, Pakistan Air Force's director of operations during the Kargil War, helped an Indian Air Force pilot escape torture when he was captured after his plane went down in Pakistani territory.



"I was detailed to talk to Nachiketa and it was a most friendly talk between two gentlemen officers. We had tea and some snacks and we rambled about flying...my mandate was to strictly maintain the cordiality of a crew room and find out the circumstances of his ejection and the mission he was flying," Tufail told  The Indian Express.

K Nachiketa was a 26-year-old fighter pilot assigned the task of hitting Pakistani posts in Kargil at altitudes in excess of 17,000 feet. He had locked on to a target and fired the cannon of his MiG-27 fighter bomber when his engine died mid-air. "My re-light did start but somewhere in the middle, I had to eject because I was getting too close to the terrain. And that is when I ejected," he said.



"The jawans who had captured me were trying to manhandle me and maybe trying to kill me, because for them, I was just an enemy pilot who had fired on their locations from the air,” he told NDTV. “Fortunately, the officer who came was very mature. He realised the situation that I am now a captive and now I need not be handled that way. So he was able to control them, which was a big effort, because they were very aggressive at that stage," he added.

Air Commodore Tufail interrogated Nachiketa, during which they realised they “had so much in common.” We discussed his father's heart problem and the recent marriage of his sister during the very civil conversation, Tufail told The Indian Express.

"I was so amazed to find that there are so many issues in common. I asked him what he was doing before the mission and he said he had taken leave to help arrange his sister's wedding. It is the same thing that brothers are required to do here," he added.



Tufail also revealed that Nachiketa was curious about the PAF and somewhat surprised at learning that all officers had access to free internet. "He also questioned me and was surprised that we have free internet for the air force. I told him that perhaps we were a smaller force and so it was easier to give Internet access to all," Tufail said.

"We had a cordial chat. I first thought of him as an officer and only after that as an Indian officer," he said. Eight days after he was captured, Nachiketa was handed over to the Red Cross which brought him back to India.

This article originally appeared on Indiatimes.