IAF Pilot Abhinandan Varthaman returns back to India
New Delhi: IAF Pilot and national hero Abhinandan Varthaman returned back into the Indian side by the Pakistani authorities on Friday evening at Attari Wagah Border.
The news of his release by the Pakistani PM Imran Khan had come as a sigh of relief for the nation, who were concerned about the officer’s well being in the Pakistan.
He was held captive by the Pakistan Army after IAF’s Mig 21 he was flying was shot down by Pakistan when he was chasing back the Pakistan fighter jets who tried to attack military installation on India side on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Pakistan PM had announced in parliament that the officer will be handed over to India as a ‘peace gesture’ while deescalating the prevailing tension between the neighbors over the Pulwama attack followed by India’s response by carrying out Air Strikes inside Pakistan territory in an anti-terror operation on Tuesday.
People started gathering at Wagah border right from Friday afternoon, to celebrate the homecoming of the brave officer.
Reports of celebrations also came from different parts of the country to mark the occasion.
After announcement of the officer’s release, demand for Nobel Peace Prize for Pakistan PM Imran Khan went trending on twitter, while people of India lauded the diplomacy and international pressure built by PM Modi on Pakistan and credited it for the release of Abhinandan.
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Viral video shows crowd in cinema hall pledging to boycott Muslims, draws flak
Vasai (Maharashtra) (PTI): A video, purportedly from Maharashtra’s Palghar district, showing people in a cinema hall chanting slogans and pledging to boycott Muslims socially and economically has triggered strong reactions.
Reacting to claims by a Congress MP that the viral video was shot in a cinema hall in Vasai on March 10, a senior police official from the Mira-Bhayandar Vasai-Virar (MBVV) Police Commissionerate told PTI on Tuesday that the veracity of the video is yet to be ascertained.
“We are not sure where it was shot and believe it could be mischief by some unscrupulous elements,” the police official said.
The MP claimed that the video shows a group of people taking the oath to boycott Muslims after watching the controversial film 'The Kerala Story 2'.
Syed Naseer Hussain, a Rajya Sabha member of the Congress, shared the video on X.
“In Vasai, Palghar, after a free screening of the film The Kerala Story on March 10, participants reportedly took a collective oath calling for the economic and social boycott of Muslims.
“The continued encouragement of propaganda-driven narratives under the BJP government has increasingly targeted Muslims and deepened communal polarisation. When cinema is deployed as a political instrument to stigmatise an entire community, it risks turning prejudice into organised discrimination and further emboldening anti-Muslim sentiment,” he said on X.
“India’s democratic ethos rests firmly on secularism, equality and fraternity. Calls for economic or social boycotts of any community strike at the very spirit of the Constitution of India and must be firmly rejected to preserve the plural and inclusive character of our Republic,” the MP said.
Another user @Nher_who posted on X: “In Vasai, Hindus took an oath to boycott Muslims economically & socially after watching Kerala Story. This was the only motive of the Movie which it has achieved.”
He said fuel and oil come from Muslim countries. Even maths has a Muslim contribution, he added. “Will they boycott petrol, diesel, and maths now?” he asked.
Since its release in 2023, The Kerala Story, and its sequel released in February this year, have been at the centre of intense political and cultural debate. Supporters claim the films expose uncomfortable truths, while critics argue that they exaggerate and promote divisive narratives.
