KARACHI: The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has directed Pakistani airlines not to use Iranian airspace citing escalating tension between the two countries.
According to sources, the Civil Aviation Authority has asked the Pakistan-bound airlines to use the Muscat (Oman) airspace. The sources in the CAA has said that strict monitoring of the flights coming from the western side including Iran has been started.
They said the Iranian airspace has not been closed for commercial flights yet and no ban has been imposed on flights coming to Pakistan from any side.
Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said Pakistan struck terrorist hideouts inside the Iranian border a day after Tehran violated the country’s airspace and launched strikes in Balochistan’s Panjgur district.
“This morning Pakistan undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Siestan-o-Baluchistan province of Iran. A number of terrorists were killed during the Intelligence-based operation – codenamed ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar’, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“Pakistan reserves the right to respond to this illegal act and the responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran,” FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch said in a social media post.
According to the statement released by the Foreign Office, after midnight, strikes in Pakistani territory resulted in “deaths of two innocent children while injuring of three girls”.
