PM Modi's meeting had lasted some one hour and 20 minutes yesterday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting at his residence on security this evening amid the heightened tensions with Pakistan. News agency PTI quoted official sources to say the meeting was attended by chiefs of the three Services, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The meeting took place hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that his country will be releasing Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured on Wednesday after he shot a Pakistani F-16 jet and his MiG-21 Bison went down in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
This was the third meeting by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the service chiefs in less than 48 hours. Yesterday evening, the meeting had lasted some one hour and 20 minutes.
Hostilities between the neighbours had peaked on Wednesday, with aerial combat between Indian and Pakistani warplanes for the first time in 48 years. Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured after the encounter.
Ties nosedived between India and Pakistan and many countries have urged de-escalation of hostilities in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack, in which over 40 soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed. On Tuesday, India sent fighter planes to Pakistan for the first time since 1971 and bombed a massive Jaish terror training facility in Balakot.
New Delhi said it was a "non-military and pre-emptive" strike based on credible inputs that Jaish was training suicide bombers for more attacks like Pulwama.
(With inputs from PTI)