Procedures, protocols of Abhinandan returning to India: IAF pilot will undergo intense debriefing before resuming duty

Compared to his brothers-in-arms in the past, who were in Pakistan’s custody at different points in time, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman is definitely the quickest one to return home. Abhinandan was taken into custody by Pakistan Army on Wednesday when during a dogfight with incoming Pakistani fighters, his MiG-21 Bison was shot down and the IAF pilot ended up parachuting into Pakistani territory.

Once his captivity was officially confirmed, there was a flurry of activities at various levels of diplomacy in both, India and Pakistan, including backdoor negotiations, to get the pilot released as soon as possible. It was on Thursday when Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan officially confirmed that Abhinandan will be returned to India on Friday.

The Wing Commander’s quick return, which is being hailed by many as a diplomatic win for India, has to go undergo an immense amount of protocols and procedures before he gets back to active duty.

“In the wake of the international pressure from countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan felt compelled to release him sooner than they would have,” said Lt Gen (retd) Rakesh Sharma, who is of the view that had it not been for the international media gaze on Pakistan’s every move, they would have kept him there longer.

Once the IAF pilot reaches Indian shores, he will be sent in for a medical examination.

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A committee of the Indian Air Force will reconstruct the events of the crash to learn what was fired, the frequency and intensity of the firing.

This is the way the forces will gauge Pakistan’s preparedness. Then, the pilot will be debriefed by multiple agencies – namely the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). He will be made to reconstruct the event. Owing to the news of crowds cheering in the region, there are speculations that he was taken to the army base in Bhimber in PoK, which is 48 kilometres from Gujarat and 166 kilometres from Islamabad.

“It could take anywhere between one day to a week,” said Col Vivek Chadha of the IDSA.

He shared that one critical aspect of the debriefing will be to establish if there was any documentation on the pilot that has now in the hands of the Pakistani forces. There were reports of IAF pilot chewing paper. Chadha explained that the armed forces are trained to destroy all equipment when they fall into the hands of the enemy. In such a scenario, a map of the pilot’s own area is among the first things to be destroyed and probably that was what IAF pilot chewed up and destroyed.

“Remedial actions like changing security codes are taken once the authorities establish what documents pertaining to our military and security are in the hands of the enemy,” the former army officer said.

Lt Gen (retd) VK Chaturvedi said that in this particular debriefing, the authorities will also find out how much of what was being projected by the Pakistani sources on social media is actually true.

“In the debriefing, the authorities will ask him questions on whether he overheard their conversations, the names of officers he met and the details of the battalion he landed into. There are speculations that it was the Northern Light Infantry,” said Lt Gen Chaturvedi. Since the pilot is a serving officer, he will then be sent back to his unit as soon as the debriefing is done.