Star wrestler Bajrang Punia on Sunday dedicated his gold medal victory at the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov to Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who returned to India from Pakistan on Friday. Bajrang defeated American Jordan Oliver in the 65kg category very last on Saturday at the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov wrestling in Ruse, Bulgaria. “I need to devote my gold to Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. He has stimulated me. I want to meet him sooner or later and additionally shake hands with him,” Bajrang Punia tweeted after his victory.
Bajrang, who bagged the pinnacle prize at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games over the last 12 months, has received four gold medals and one silver in the last five tournaments. On Wednesday, Wing Commander Abhinandan, while flying the MiG-21 Bison, engaged in a chase of Pakistani F-sixteen warring parties, which had transgressed into the Indian airspace. Inside the technique, his aircraft crossed over to the Pakistani side and was shot down. He ejected competently. However, he was taken into custody by way of the Pakistan Army upon touchdown. Before his plane was shot down, he had hit a Pakistani F-16.
On Thursday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Abhinandan could be handed over to India as a “peace gesture,” and the instant, in the end, came on a wet night on Friday after hours of waiting. On March 1, carrying a blue blazer and gray khaki trousers, he crossed over into India from the Attari-Wagah border at 8 pm IST. He turned himself over through the Pakistan Rangers to the Border Security Force (BSF) following paperwork.
Wing Commander Abhinandan turned into accompanied using an officer of the Pakistan Foreign Office and Indian Defence Attache Group Captain Joy Thomas Kurien. Tensions escalated between the two neighboring nations following the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, wherein India’s Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) lost forty infantrymen. Pakistan-based terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the gruesome attack in which a suicide bomber blew up a CRPF bus in Pulwama. India replied to it using launching airstrikes on a Jaish terror base in Balakot early Tuesday morning. Pakistan retaliated with its airstrike in the Indian territory the next day, and then Wing Commander Abhinandan crossed the border.
