Pakistan has strongly rejected reports that it denied its airspace access to an Indian Air Force aircraft travelling to Turkey for relief operations, terming them as baseless, false and fabricated. According to diplomatic sources Pakistan never received any request from Indian side for any overflight. The sources said in absence of any request, the question of giving permission to any Indian aircraft for overflight was quite ridiculous.

They said Indian media was propagating false and fabricated reports to malign Pakistan. Indian media reported that Pakistan has denied its airspace to Indian Air Force aircraft travelling to Turkey early Tuesday morning. This is the second time that Pakistan has attempted to prevent India from sending humanitarian aid to nations in need of it.

Reports said IAF aircraft were following a standard routine for the HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief) missions from India to Turkey. These missions involve overflight clearances from countries that are en route to the destination. “Clearances for the particular HADR missions in question were sought for the standard routine which the IAF operators fly on a regular basis," the reports claimed.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP