All airports have been sealed. No one will be allowed to go in or out except for security personnel and staff,” Shri Sirivennela of Amritsar Police told Indian news agency ANI, adding that “all scheduled flights” in the region will be impacted. “Until the situation is under control, we will be following the decisions made by the central government,” Sirivennela told ANI.
Multiple Indian and international carriers issued travel advisories on Wednesday regarding cancellations to and from destinations in northern India, after New Delhi launched strikes on Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir on Wednesday morning. Other airlines said they were re-routing or canceling flights to and from Europe due to the escalation between India and Pakistan, with more than two dozen international flights diverted to avoid Pakistan airspace, according to FlightRadar24 data.
Late on Wednesday night (Thursday morning local time), Reuters reported that Pakistan had reopened its airspace and that its airports were fully functional. India and Pakistan fired shells at each other over their de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region on Wednesday night, according to a statement from the Indian defense spokesperson in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The Pakistani army had fired “small arms and artillery guns” across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, to which the Indian army “responded proportionately,” said Lt. Col. Suneel Bartwal, India’s defense spokesperson in Jammu. The two countries’ militaries have been exchanging gunfire across the Line of Control nearly every day since the massacre in April at the heart of this escalation. Gunmen stormed a scenic spot in Indian-administered Kashmir and killed 26 civilians, mostly Indian tourists. akistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to respond to India’s strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir that were carried out in the early hours of Wednesday local time.
What that response entails may well decide whether the two countries are able to find an off-ramp or become locked into an escalating confrontation. One option for Pakistan is to claim victory, pointing to the jets it claims to have downed. This option depends on the truth of Pakistan’s claims that it has downed five Indian Air Force planes, including three French-made Rafale fighter jets. second option is to carry out strikes of its own. Pakistan might decide it wants to “respond in kind” because some of India’s strikes hit the densely populated province of Punjab in Pakistan, said Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution.
Or Pakistani Army Chief Syed Asim Munir, who is reputed to be “more assertive” than his predecessor Qamar Javed Bajwa was in 2019 when India and Pakistan last clashed, may decide he wants to “up the ante,” said Madan. However, given India’s messaging has been that it will retaliate if Pakistan’s next move goes too far, Islamabad could decide to keep any response “below a certain threshold,” Madan said. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said Islamabad will only hit military targets in India, not civilian. The latest statements from Pakistan suggested it is thinking of a measured response, Madan said, adding however, that no possibilities can be ruled out.
“Largely on the basis of what we’ve seen in previous times, these are two rational actors who don’t want a broader war. Both have something to lose if there is a broader conflict,” she said.
Source: Here