Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday said it has rejected India’s request to allow Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s VVIP flight to use its airspace for his upcoming visit to the US via Germany.
“India had requested Pakistan to allow Modi to use its airspace to travel to Germany on the 21st (Sept) and return on 28th (Sept),” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.
Announcing the decision via a video statement, Qureshi said the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad had been informed of Pakistan’s decision to not allow prime minister’s Modi’s special Air India One aircraft to fly over the country, the Geo News reported.
“We regret decision of Pakistan to deny overflight clearance for the VVIP special flight for a second time in 2 weeks, which is otherwise granted routinely by any normal country,” the Ministry of External Affairs said.
Prime Minister Modi is travelling to the US on September 21 to attend the ‘Howdy Modi’ diaspora event on September 22 and address the UN General Assembly on September 27.
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I am absolutely appalled at the foolishness of this thing. I mean, foolishness of the Indians who even asked Pakistan for the permission. Why trust a government which has been so terribly miffed, and so recently, to such an extent? What if Pakistan had given the permission, and then attacked Mr Modi’s aircraft with missiles just as it was flying over Pakistani territory? It could have always said later that some rogue officer did it without permission and “we have suspended him”, or some other lame excuse like that. After all, such “accidents” are not unheard of. A few years ago the Russians blew a civilian aircraft out of the sky, and that when it wasn’t even flying over its territory. I vaguely remember it had something to do with Ukraine.