Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Gets Permit To Fly Through Indian Air Space For Sri Lanka Trip

Imran Khan will be travelling to Sri Lanka on his maiden visit on February 23rd through Indian airspace after he was granted permission from govt.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan sought permission from the Indian government to use Indian air space to fly to Sri Lanka for his maiden visit on February 23, 2021. India permitted Pakistan Prime Minister's aircraft to use Indian Air Space.

Imran Khan's plane left Pakistan around noon and touched India's Air Defence Identification Zone. The plane was in the airspace of India's Lakshadweep Island.

This comes after Pakistan denied opening its airspace for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flights to the US and Saudi Arabia citing alleged "human rights violations in Kashmir" in 2019.

In a statement, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Pakistan has decided not to allow Prime Minister Modi to use the country's airspace, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. He said the decision has been taken in the context of the "black day" and in view of the alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, it added.

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India took this denial with an International Civil Aviation Organisation since Pakistan's denial of permission to VVIP aircraft was an aberration. India also said that Pakistan should reconsider its "old habit" of misrepresenting the reasons for taking unilateral action.

In 2019, Pakistan also rejected a request made by New Delhi to let President Ram Nath Kovind aircraft to fly over its airspace, AFP quoted Pakistan Finance Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi as saying 'tensions between the two neighbours have heightened after New Delhi's revocation of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir on August 5'. Pakistan has been threatening to completely close its airspace for India since the latter announced its decision to abrogate Article 370, no official notification had come in this regard.

 

Islamabad has shut its airspace earlier following the Indian Air Force (IAF) action on February 26th 2019. IAF planes had destroyed terror camps in Pakistan's Balakot area, following the February 14th 2019 Pulwama terror attack which killed over 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir. On July 16th 2019, Pakistan had fully opened its airspace for all flights.