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 on 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 palms with him,” Bajrang Punia tweeted after his victory.
Bajrang, who bagged the pinnacle prize on the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games remaining 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, changed into chasing Pakistani F-sixteen warring parties, which had transgressed into the Indian airspace. Inside the technique, his aircraft crossed over to the Pakistani facet and turned into shot down. He ejected competently. However, he was taken into custody by way of the Pakistan Army upon touchdown. Before his plane was shot, he had hit a Pakistani F-16.
On Thursday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan introduced that Abhinandan could be exceeded over to India as a “peace gesture,” and the instant, in the end, came on a wet night time on Friday after hours of waiting. On March 1, carrying blue blazer and gray khaki trouser, he crossed over into India from Attari-Wagah border at nine: 8 pm IST. He turned into handed 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 among 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 their airstrike in the Indian territory the next day, and then Wing Commander Abhinandan crossed the border.
