evidence: Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman returned to India on Friday night, two days after he was captured in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, potentially capping for now a week of heightened tension that threatened to snowball into a wider military conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. [...] Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the IAF pilot’s return. "Welcome Home Wing Commander Abhinandan! The nation is proud of your exemplary courage. Our armed forces are an inspiration for 130 crore Indians. Vande Mataram!" he wrote in a tweet. Opposition leader and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, too, welcomed Varthaman. "Wing Cdr. Abhinandan, your dignity, poise and bravery made us all proud. Welcome back and much love," he said in a tweet, his first since Wednesday when he had last tweeted about the IAF pilot’s capture.