Pakistan is once again rattled by India’s move to operate Srinagar-Sharjah flights launched recently by Home Minister Amit Shah and has closed its air space for these flights passing through its territory. Now the planes flying from Srinagar to Sharjah will have to pass through Udaipur and Ahmedabad. Due to this, the journey will take one and a half hours more and the financial burden on the passengers will also increase.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has condemned this move of Pakistan. Taking to microblogging website Twitter, he wrote, “Very unfortunate. Pakistan did the same thing with the Air India Express flight from Srinagar to Dubai in 2009-2010. I had hoped that @GoFirstairways being permitted to overfly Pak airspace was indicative of a thaw in relations but alas that wasn’t to be.”

Through this move, Pakistan has directly violated international flight norms by refusing to allow flights to pass through its territory. Notably, the people of Kashmir were getting the most benefit from this air service started from Srinagar to Sharjah.

After Pakistan’s refusal, the planes going to Sharjah will go through Udaipur, Ahmedabad and Oman. This will also make the air travel longer. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of External Affairs have also got information about this decision of Pakistan.

It may be recalled that Home Minister Amit Shah had launched this air service on October 23 during his Jammu-Srinagar tour. Since then, the controversy escalated. The neighbouring country was also upset that after the agreement between the Indian government and Dubai, the Srinagar-Sharjah air service was started directly and permission was not taken from Pakistan before using its airspace.