Let’s understand it this way.
What Pakistan has been trying to do ever since they captured Indian Wing Commander Abhinandan?
From the fake details to the videos shared earlier, they have been trying to sell an image of Pakistan. Basically, they are doing everything in their power to propagate Pakistan as a nation opting a peaceful route out of this chaos.
Imran Khan’s statement yesterday regarding the release of WC terming it as a “peace gesture” on their part further reinforces the very same propaganda.
Now coming to the original question, why did Pakistan delay the handing over of Wing Commander Abhinandan so much?
Pakistan wanted to milk as much out of this opportunity as possible. They aimed to create a spectacle out of this whole handing over action for the world media to see. It was a well thought out strategy to create a whole peaceful handing over drama through the border.
This also justifies why Pakistan refused when India wanted to bring our WC Abhinandan through IAF plane. Sending him through plane would have robbed Pakistan of an opportunity to hold that grand ceremony where it projected itself so benign and peaceful. Thus, they stuck to sending him through the Wagah- Attari border.
Even after this decision, they wanted to make sure that they could garner as much eyeballs as possible and thus delayed the handing over till evening. As known to everyone, every evening of Wagah- Attari border sees the traditional retreat ceremony attended by thousands of people. Finding it to be the most apt time where they could get immense attention, they chose to fix this time.
But India seeing through their strategy and not wanting the whole process to become a grand spectacle, cancelled the retreat ceremony for the day. Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon said, “We have done away with the element of spectacle Pakistan was hoping for. It will be a quiet handover”. Further, it prohibited media persons and general public from being even in the 1 km area of the border.
Later, Pakistan further delayed citing documentation procedures which anyone could clearly see was nothing but an attempt to waste time and delay as much as possible. Further playing smart in their strategy, they now decided to opt for the prime 9 PM slot where they knew they are sure of getting millions of eyeballs. And that happened. Entire nation was hooked to their T.V. screens after returning from their respective workplaces. Indian media being Indian media, made sure they captured every step taken by our WC Abhinandan towards the Indian part of the border.
And Pakistan got what it wanted. The entire process looked like a grand ceremony of peaceful gesture by Pakistan.
Thus, according to my perspective, this is what led to Pakistan delaying the handing over of WC Abhinandan.
Whatever their strategy might be, it is a matter of great joy for the nation that our brave hero is back to his home.
-Shreya Agrawal
