Pakistan said on Thursday that it was considering returning a captured Indian pilot, as US President Donald Trump said American mediation was helping to defuse a crisis between the two nuclear powers a day after both downed enemy jets. The pilot, identified by Islamabad as Wing Commander Abhi Nandan, became the human face of the latest flare-up following the release of videos showing him being captured and later held in custody. "We are willing to return the captured Indian pilot if it leads to de-escalation," Qureshi told Geo TV. Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has already called for talks with India to prevent the risk of a "miscalculation" between their nuclear-armed militaries. The Pakistani foreign minister's remarks came shortly after Trump said he expected "reasonably decent news" regarding the conflict between India and Pakistan. The US, China and other world powers have urged restraint from the two nations as tensions escalate following tit-for-tat airstrikes in the wake of a suicide car bombing that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Feb. 14. Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire along the contested border in Kashmir on Thursday, but speaking at a press conference, Trump said the US had been mediating between the two sides. "They have been going at it and we have been involved in trying to have them stop," Trump said in Hanoi, where he was attending a summit with North Korea's leader. "We have been in the middle trying to help them both out." Earlier on Thursday, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who faces a general election in a matter of months, told a rally of supporters that India would unite against its enemies. "The world is observing our collective will. It is necessary that we shouldn't do anything that allows our enemy to raise a finger at us," he said, in his first remarks since the downing of planes on Wednesday. Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from British colonial rule in 1947, two over Kashmir, and went to the brink of a fourth in 2002 after a Pakistani militant attack on India's parliament. Pakistan has shut its airspace, forcing commercial airlines to reroute. Thai Airways International announced on Thursday that it had cancelled flights to Pakistan and Europe, which left thousands of passengers stranded in Bangkok. As Trump was speaking, India said that Pakistan had fired mortars into Indian-occupied territory at around 1 p.m. (0730 GMT). Troops from India and Pakistan also exchanged fire for over an hour in the Poonch district at 6 a.m., according to a statement from the Indian army. "The Indian army retaliated strongly and effectively," said Lieutenant Colonel Devender Anand, a defense ministry spokesman. The firing was significantly less elevated than the artillery fire exchanged by the two sides on Wednesday. Pakistan said the firing began overnight. "The firing continued in intervals throughout the night. It was moderate," said Shaukat Yusufzai, an administration official in the Pakistan-controlled part of Poonch. One man was hospitalized after being hit by shrapnel, he added. On Wednesday evening India's foreign ministry handed a dossier to Pakistan that it claimed detailed camps of the Paskistan-based militant group that carried out the Feb. 14 attack. With a general election due in India by May, an upsurge in nationalism from any conflict with Pakistan could become a key factor, potentially favoring Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Late on Wednesday B.S. Yeddyurappa, a BJP leader in the southern state of Karnataka, said India's strike inside Pakistani territory would help the party to win back power in the state — the first such comment from a member of the ruling party. "This has brought a pro-Modi wave all through the country," he told reporters. "The effect of this will be seen in the elections." China, the European Union and other countries also called for restraint. Japan's foreign minister said on Thursday the country was concerned about the "deteriorating situation". The Chinese government's top diplomat, State Councilor Wang Yi, spoke by telephone with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and expressed "deep concern", China's foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The United States, Britain and France proposed the United Nations Security Council blacklist Masood Azhar, the head of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, the group that claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 attack. China is likely to be oppose the move. — Reuters
