Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

New Delhi, June 1: India has on Saturday removed the temporary restriction in its airspace on international flights to Pakistan, which were imposed in a wake of escalated tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi following Pulwama terror attack, the Indian Air Force (IAS) said.

On its official Twitter handle, the IAF wrote, “Temporary restrictions on all air routes in the Indian airspace, imposed by the Indian Air Force on 27 Feb 19, have been removed.”

The measures to restrict the flight’s passage to and from Pakistan were introduced in retaliatory measures to Islamabad’s decision to ban Indian commercial aircraft entering its Pakistani airspace, according to Sputnik news reports. 

India and Pakistan had shut their respective airspaces to each other following an aerial strike on an alleged terror outfit camp in Pakistan’s region of Balakot by the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets across Line of Control (LOC).

Pakistan had fully closed its airspace on February 26 following the violation of its foreign boundary and airspace by IAF fighter jets. The development made after one of the worst terror attacks, Pulwama terror attack, on February 14, claimed by Pakistani based and backed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, which claimed the lives of 44 CRPF personnel.

Earlier on May 16, Pakistan extended its airspace ban for international flights to India until May 30 as no progress, in this respect, has been yet made at the bilateral level. International flights from India are also banned from entering Pakistani airspace.

But on May 29, the authorities of Pakistan again decided to extend its airspace ban for the commercial flights until June 15.

However, the airspace was opened to some flights but was yet to be reopened for Afghanistan flights en route to India.

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