New Delhi shuts at least four airports amid rising Indo-Pak tensions

Airports in Chandigarh and Amritsar closed

India has shut at least four airports in the northern part of the country, a government official told Reuters, after Pakistan Air Force struck Indian targets across the Line of Control from within Pakistani airspace on Wednesday.

India has shut airports at Pathankot, Leh, Srinagar, and Jammu, the official said.

Airports in Chandigarh and Amritsar have also been closed, an industry source told Reuters.

The main airport in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-occupied Kashmir, had been shut down for three hours, police in the city said.

Meanwhile, Indian airline Vistara said on Wednesday flights to and from four cities in northern India are on hold as tensions between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan escalate.

#TravelUpdate. Due to airspace restrictions, flights to and from Amritsar, Srinagar, Chandigarh and Jammu are currently on hold. Customers are requested to check flight status before commencing their journey to the airport. (1/2)

— Vistara (@airvistara) February 27, 2019

"Due to airspace restrictions, flights to and from Amritsar, Srinagar, Chandigarh, and Jammu are currently on hold," Vistara, a joint venture between India's Tata Sons Limited and Singapore Airlines Limited said in a tweet.



The PAF move comes a day after Pakistan’s civil and military leadership declared the violation of airspace by Indian fighter jets “uncalled for aggression” and decided that the country would respond at the “time and place of its choosing”.

“Once again Indian government has resorted to a self-serving, reckless and fictitious claim. This action has been done for domestic consumption being in the election environment, putting regional peace and stability at grave risk,” an official statement issued by the Prime Minister office said.

“The claimed area of the strike is open for the world to see the facts on the ground. For this domestic and international media is being taken to the impact site,” it added.

The premier also called a meeting of the National Command Authority and a Parliament session on Wednesday.

It was Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor, who first broke the news of airspace violation by Indian jets along the Line of Control (LoC). His early morning tweet said Pakistan scrambled its fighter jets to challenge the Indian incursion. In haste, according to the chief military spokesperson, Indian warplanes released their payloads that had free fall in an open area.

A few hours later, the Indian foreign secretary addressed a news conference in New Delhi in which he claimed that Indian fighter jets carried out ‘preemptive strikes’ targeting the alleged terrorist camps of banned Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militant group.

Pakistan did confirm the Indian incursion but strongly rebutted the claim that any terrorist camp was hit on its side of the LoC.

With additional input from Reuters.