Wing Commander Abhinandan to Go on Sick Leave as Debriefing Ends: Report

New Delhi: The debriefing of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman has been completed by the Indian Air Force and other agencies on Thursday, news agency ANI quoted a source as saying.

According to sources in the Air Force, the wing commander will be going on sick leave for a week now.

A medical review board in the near future will assess the medical fitness of Wing Commander Varthaman and decide on when he can resume his operations as a fighter pilot.

The MRI scan of Commander Abhinandan was conducted on March 3 and the doctors had not found any bugs inside his body. The scan had however revealed that Abhinandan has suffered an injury in his lower spine which could have happened due to his ejection from MiG-21, which was hit by a Pakistani fighter jet during a fierce aerial dogfight on February 27.

The 35-year-old pilot was captured by Pakistani forces on February 27 after aerial combat between the Indian Air Force and the Pakistani Air Force and was released by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on March 1 as a 'gesture of peace'.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after Indian fighters bombed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp near Balakot, deep inside Pakistan.

Pakistan retaliated by attempting to target Indian military installations. However, the IAF thwarted their plans. The Indian strike on the JeM camp came 12 days after the terror outfit claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Kashmir, killing 40 soldiers.​