Beating the Retreat ceremony cancelled at Wagah border

As Indian authorities wait for captured Indian pilot to return home, it was announced that the Beating the Retreat ceremony won't be taking place at the Wagah border today.

Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon, Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, said: "The Beating the Retreat ceremony (at Attari-Wagah Border) will not be held today. Senior team of the Indian Air Force will receive the Indian pilot."

Pakistan PM Imran Khan had announced in a joint session in the National Assembly that his government would be freeing the Indian pilot who was captured after Pakistan shot down a MiG-21 which was involved in a dogfight as Pakistani jets entered Indian airspace on Tuesday.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

India had earlier said it won't be involved in any bargain to get the pilot back even as Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told the Pakistani media that the government would be willing to handover the Indian pilot if India promised to "de-escalate" the situation.

India had sent Mirage 2000 jets in the early hours on Monday to destroy terror bases in the Balakot area of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The next day Pakistani jets, along with an F-16 fighter entered Indian air space from the Rajouri area in Jammu and Kashmir(J&K) to target Indian installations leading India to send MiG-21s to intercept it, in the impending firefightthe Indian MiG-21 was shot down and the plane fell insidePakistani territory.

The Indian Air Force later said one of the MiG-21 Bison had shot down aPakistani F-16 even as Pakistani authorities denied it.

Air Force Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor in a joint defence press conference on Thursdayshowed evidence ofAMRAAM air-to-air missile which was fired from a Pakistani F-16 fighter.