Amazed we had so much in common: Pak officer on Indian Kargil pilot

Nachiketa was subsequently returned to India. He later met with another MiG-27 crash and now flies transport aircraft.

Tufail,whose blow-by-blow account of how the Pakistani Army plotted the Kargil operations was reported by The Indian Express on Friday,maintains he had a “very civil” conversation with the downed Indian pilot,discussing family problems,peculiarities of their respective services and “shared a vegetable patty”.

“I was detailed to talk to Nachiketa and it was a most friendly talk between two gentlemen officers. We had tea and some snacks and we rambled about flying…my mandate was to strictly maintain the cordiality of a crew room and to find out the circumstances of his ejection and the mission he was flying,” Tufail,who was Director of Operations of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during the Kargil conflict,told The Indian Express today.

“I was so amazed to find that there are so many issues in common. I asked him what he was doing before the mission and he said he had taken leave to help arrange his sister’s wedding. It is the same thing that brothers are required to do here.”

Tufail said Nachiketa was curious about the PAF and somewhat surprised that all officers had access to free Internet.

“He also questioned me and was surprised that we have free Internet for the air force. I told him that perhaps we were a smaller force and so it was easier to give Internet access to all… We had a cordial chat. I first thought of him as an officer and only after that as an Indian officer.”