New Delhi: The international flights that transit between India and Pakistan airspace have been affected due to the cross border tensions between the two countries, said sources.
“International flights that transit between Indian and Pakistani airspace now being affected. Some flights returning to origin, while others appear to be seeking alternate routing,” sources said.
Pakistan has immediately stopped its domestic and international flight operations from Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Islamabad airports.
Meanwhile, the airspace over Leh, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot and areas bordering Pakistan were also shut indefinitely earlier today in the wake of the security situation building up in the area.
With all Indian establishments put on high alert in view of possible air space violation by Pakistan, the Indian government decided to shut the air space for commercial and civilian flights. Several commercial flights have been put on hold.
Flight operations have been suspended at the Amritsar airport too.
“Due to operational reasons the airspace at Amritsar has been closed for now. No commercial flights are coming to Amritsar, there is no base here, so flights are not even taking off from here.,” AP Acharya, Amritsar Airport Director told ANI.
In a statement, Vistara said, “Due to airspace restrictions, flights to and from Amritsar, Srinagar, Chandigarh and Jammu are currently on hold. Customers are requested to check flight status before commencing their journey to the airport.”
A high-level meeting was called by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh where CISF DG Rajesh Ranjan was present. He briefed MHA about the security preparedness of airports.
All inconvenience meted out the passengers have been regretted by the respective airlines.
On Tuesday, India carried out air strikes on a terror camp run by Jaish-E-Mohammad in Balakot, a hill town in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Soon after that the Pakistani side started building up for a confrontation and resorted to ceasefire violation in 15 places including Poonch and Rajouri.
There were reports that the Pakistani Air Force jets violated Indian airspace in Rajouri sector, and dropped bombs near Indian Army establishments. No reports of casualties have been reported so far.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]