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Friday September 13, 2024

Modi flies to India via 'Pakistani airspace' on way back from Poland

Indian premier's plane entered Pakistani airspace via Chitral, say sources

By Raees Ansari
August 24, 2024
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sitting in an aircraft. — AFP/File
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sitting in an aircraft. — AFP/File

As Islamabad and New Delhi continue to have strained ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently used the Pakistani airspace, aviation sources told Geo News on Saturday.

Sources affiliated with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCCA) revealed that an aircraft carrying Modi passed through Pakistani airspace on its way back to New Delhi from Poland.

The aircraft entered the Pakistani airspace at 10:15am and left at 11:01am after spending 46 minutes in the Pakistani airspace. The sources said the Indian premier's plane entered Pakistani airspace via Chitral and passed through air control areas of Islamabad and Lahore before entering India's Amritsar.

Modi visited the Polish capital Warsaw en route to Kyiv, to meet the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In March 2019, Pakistan lifted all airspace restrictions for civilian flights, reopening a key transit air corridor over its territory almost five months after closing it in the wake of a military standoff with India triggered by ab attack on security convoy that killed 44 paramilitary police in India Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Subsequently, Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic ties and suspended bilateral trade with India after the Modi-led government abrogated the semi-autonomous status of the IIOJK in August 2019.