Pak PM Imran Khan: Pakistan will release IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman on Friday

The captured Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot will be freed on Friday "as a peace gesture", Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Thursday.

Addressing a joint session of the National Assembly, Khan said the India-Pakistan situation should not "get out of hand" otherwise "Pakistan will have to retaliate", the Dawn reported.

"Countries are ruined because of miscalculation," said Khan. Alleging "war hysteria" in India, he said: "I'm afraid there might be a miscalculation.

"War is not a solution. If India takes any action, we will have to retaliate."

The joint session of Parliament was called to discuss the rising tensions with India.

"The only purpose of our strike (on India on Wednesday) was to demonstrate our capability and will," said the Prime Minister. "We did not want to inflict any casualty on India as we wanted to act in a responsible manner."

He said he tried to call Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the telephone on Wednesday because "escalation is not in our interests nor in India's".

Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman of the IAF was captured by Pakistanis on Wednesday after his MiG was shot down and fell in Pakistani territory during a dogfight.

Soon after Pakistan claimed it had captured an IAF pilot, it released a video in which Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was seen blindfolded and with his hands tied behind his back. Later, another video was released where he was seen answering some questions and saying he was being looked after well after he was taken into custody by Pakistani troops.

India strongly objected to Pakistan's "vulgar display" of an injured personnel as it was a violation of all the norms of the Geneva Convention and warned that no harm should come to him. India then demanded Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s immediate release. Meanwhile Pakistan Prime Minister also talked about re initiating dialogue for peace between the two countries amid rising tensions across the border.

With inputs from agencies