While IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman said in a video when he was just captured by Pakistan that his treatment over there was 'excellent', he stated that he was subjected to mental torture by the Inter-Services Intelligence.
Abhinandan told the senior Indian Air Force officials that the reason his release was delayed was that the Pakistani ISI made him record a video appreciating the Pakistani side while maligning the Indian media. According to a report by the Times of India, the ISI played a lot of mind games on him to try and break his morale.
An IAF source, after speaking to Abhinandan said that the mental torture did not break him and that he is fine. The TOI report states that the IAF pilot who shot down a Pakistani F-16 before he was caught by Pakistan, is yet to go through scans for internal injuries which he could have had when he was beaten up by the people who first caught him when he landed.
In the heavily edited video released by Pakistan a few minutes before Abhinandan crossed the border, the Wing Commander speaks about how he ejected from the MiG-21 when it was shot by the Pakistan security forces and his experience in the neighbouring country.
The video which has over 15 edits and cuts also show the pilot praising Pakistan military. The video also shows Abhinandan criticizing the Indian media and for its journalism and sensationalizing issues. The video seems like bits were taken and sewn up together to portray that Abhinandan was saying this while it may not be the case.
Pakistan received a lot of flak for the video with many accusing the country of making it just for the sake of propaganda. Twitterati even added that the video ruined Pakistan's peace gesture of releasing Abhinandan to India.
The video was released at 08:30 pm while Abhinandan was seen crossing the border a little after 09:00 pm.
Due to the amount of criticism Pakistan received, it took down the video from its official Twitter account, Radio Pakistan.
