Slain IAF man's daughter forgives Pak pilot who killed her dad

The daughter of an IAF pilot, who was killed when a Pakistan Air Force combat pilot shot down his civilian aircraft during the 1965 Indo-Pak war, has "forgiven" her father's killer.

The daughter of an IAF pilot, who was killed when a Pakistan Air Force combat pilot shot down his civilian aircraft during the 1965 Indo-Pak war, has "forgiven" her father's killer.

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Forgiving former PAF pilot Qais Hussain, Farida Singh -- daughter of IAF pilot Jahangir Engineer -- said her father would have liked the apology to bring a spark of forgiveness between the people of India and Pakistan.

Her reply to Hussain, who apologised to her 46 years after the incident in a mail earlier this week and posted her reply online, said, "My father would have liked that it goes towards bringing a spark of forgiveness between our two peoples, who after all were one."

The 70 year old Hussain, now a Lahore resident, had sent an apology email to Singh on August 5 with a note of the details of the incident.

Hussain wrote he had shot down the Beechcraft after it showed up on the Pakistani radar, having drifted many miles away from the Indian coast and going up and down over the borders of Rann of Kutch.