New Delhi:
Pakistan today shut down its airspace for all air traffic, hours after India accused it of using commercial flights as shields amid drone attacks. The decision, notified through a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), came amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The move follows a night of intense drone activity along India’s northern and western borders, after Pakistan launched a coordinated wave of drone attacks targeting military infrastructure across 26 locations, ranging from Leh in the north to Sir Creek in the south. Several of the targeted sites included key airfields, forward military bases, and civil aviation facilities. India successfully repelled each attack.
India accused Pakistan of endangering international air traffic by keeping its airspace open while executing drone and missile operations.
“Pakistan is using civil airliners as a shield, knowing fully well that its attack on India would elicit a swift air defence response. This is not safe for the unsuspecting civil airliners, including the international flights which were flying near the international border between India and Pakistan,” Colonel Sofiya Qureshi of the Army said at a press briefing yesterday, alongside Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
Flightradar24 data, during the filing of this report, showed no aircraft in the Pakistani airspace.
Pakistan deployed between 300 and 400 drones, identified preliminarily as Turkish-made Asisguard Songar models, on the night of May 8-9. Many were intercepted using a combination of kinetic and electronic warfare systems, including the Barak-8 and S-400 Triumph missile defence platforms, Akash SAMs, and indigenous anti-drone technologies.
“The sheer scale suggests it was a deliberate military attempt to test our readiness. We responded proportionately,” Wing Commander Singh said at the briefing.
Among the locations targeted were Srinagar airport, the Awantipora airbase, Nagrota, Jammu, Pathankot, Fazilka, and Jaisalmer.
In Ferozpur, a drone attack on a civilian area injured three members of a local family. No Indian military installations were damaged.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a high-level security review meeting late Friday night with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and the service chiefs. Earlier in the day, PM Modi also met former chiefs of the armed forces to take their views on the evolving crisis.
Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the civil preparedness in states along the Pakistan border, particularly around airports and high-value targets.
