Pakistan Wednesday closed its airspace for commercialflights and suspended flight operations across major airports, including inIslamabad, Lahore and Karachi, for an indefinite period in the wake of theescalating tensions with India.
Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority made the announcementafter the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’smedia arm, acknowledged the closure of Pakistan’s airspace due to theprevailing security situation.
The airport will be used for “military purposes” till it isreopened for commercial activities, an official told DawnNews TV, adding that ared alert has also been issued.
“All civilian flight operations have been suspended,” theofficial said.
Civil Aviation Authority spokesman MujtabaBaig said theflight operations in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces have beensuspended for an indefinite period.
He said the flight operations from and to Lahore, Sialkot,Faisalabad, Multan and Rawalpindi/Islamabad airports have been suspended.
The planes which had left from foreign destinations forthese airports have been diverted to the safer airports, he said.
Earlier, DawnNews TV quoting sources at the Karachi airportsaid that Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) New Delhi-bound flight PK-270had been cancelled due to tensions at the Line of Control (LoC).
The move comes amid escalation of tension between India andPakistan after IAF carried out strikes on terror bases in Pakistan on Tuesday.
India has also closed nine airports in Jammu and Kashmir,Himachal Pradesh and Punjab for civilian air traffic and the entire airspacenorth of New Delhi has been vacated on a day of rapidly escalating tensionsbetween India and Pakistan.