Benazir Bhutto's niece Fatima Bhutto seeks release of Indian Air Force pilot in Pakistan’s custody

Fatima Bhutto, the granddaughter of former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and niece of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said the Indian pilot should be released from Pakistan’s custody as a gesture of commitment to peace. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Bhutto wrote, "I and many other young Pakistanis have called upon our country to release the captured Indian pilot as a gesture of our commitment to peace, humanity and dignity."

"We have spent a lifetime at war. I do not want to see Pakistani soldiers die. I do not want to see Indian soldiers die. We cannot be a subcontinent of orphans," said Bhutto. "My generation of Pakistanis have fought for the right to speak, and we are not afraid to lend our voices to that most righteous cause: peace," said the 36-year old daughter. Daughter of Murtaza Bhutto, the son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Fatima said, "But our long history with military dictatorships and experience of terrorism and uncertainty means that my generation of Pakistanis have no tolerance, no appetite, for jingoism or war," she said. "I have never seen my country at peace with its neighbour. But never before have I seen a war played out between two nuclear-armed states with Twitter accounts," Bhutto said.

Bilawal Bhutto, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chief and former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s son tweeted, “It is the youth of the subcontinent who will pay in blood and coin for generations to come for the shortsighted decisions of a few today. Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s call for dialogue must be reciprocated, time to deescalate before it’s too late (sic).”

Tensions between India and Pakistan have been running high since the February 14 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the incident, India bombed and destroyed JeM's biggest training camp in Balakot, around 80 km from the Line of Control early Tuesday, killing a "very large number" of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders.