Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly utilised Pakistan’s airspace, while coming back from India to Poland, according to media reports of Pakistan.
Citing sources from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the report of news.com.pk revealed, that the plane entered Pakistani airspace at 10:15 am and remained there for about 46 minutes.
Further, the flight passed over Chitral and traversed the air control zones of Islamabad and Lahore before exiting into India at 11:01 am via Amritsar.
Speaking to The News, an official from the CAA clarified that the flight was allowed under the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of international civil aviation. “International laws dictate that in such circumstances, no No-Objection Certificate (NOC) is required. The country’s CAA concerned only needs to be informed in advance,” the official explained.
The newspapers said, quoting sources, that Indian PM Narendra Modi has crossed Pakistan’s airspace four times after becoming the Prime Minister of India for the third time.
On August 21, Modi entered Pakistan’s airspace at a height of 36,000 feet near Kasur at 10 am on his way to Poland’s capital Warsaw in his special India One plane from Delhi. His plane remained in Pakistan’s airspace for 48 minutes. He entered the Afghan airspace from Chitral.
On July 8, on his way from Delhi to Moscow, the Indian Prime Minister’s plane India One flew at a height of 36,000 feet and entered Pakistan’s airspace near Chitral at 11:26 am. It entered the airspace of Afghanistan at 12:10 pm.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited Poland from August 21-22. This marked the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Poland in 45 years.
Pakistan fully closed its airspace to India in February 2019 after Indian fighter jets violated its international boundary. Although the airspace was partially reopened in March of that year, it remained closed to Indian flights. Notably, Pakistan denied Modi’s request to use its airspace for a flight to Germany later that year amid heightened tensions over the Kashmir issue. However, in 2021, Pakistan granted permission for Modi’s non-stop flight to the US to pass through its airspace.
