PoK PM Onboard Pakistani Chopper That Violated Indian Airspace

A Pakistani helicopter violated Indian airspace in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on 30 September.

A Pakistani helicopter on Sunday, 30 September, violated Indian airspace in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.

(Photo: ANI/altered by The Quint)

A Pakistani helicopter on Sunday, 30 September, violated Indian airspace in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, ANI reported. The helicopter came 700 metres inside Indian territory and was immediately fired upon by troops with small arms following which it returned to PoK.

Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Tourism Minister Mushtaq Minhas told The Indian Express said that he, along with PoK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan, the PM’s personal security officer, and the province’s Education Minister Ifthikar Gilani, were on board the helicopter at the time.

In the video posted by ANI, a white Pakistani helicopter is seen flying high near a hill in Poonch and gunshots can be heard, indicating the shooting by the Indian Army.

According to NDTV, the helicopter is likely to be a civil aircraft and was first spotted in Indian airspace at 12:13 pm. It then flew back to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

“Pakistan is adopting an aggressive posture... This violation of airspace is a serious matter. It needs to be seen how deep the helicopter came inside the Indian territory and how long it was in Indian airspace... then only one could make out what could be the aim of this intrusion, is it recce, is it surveillance?”, Major General Ashwani Siwach (retired) told NDTV.

According to NDTV there are norms recognised by both India and Pakistan according to which helicopters are not supposed to come within one kilometre of the LoC and fixed-wing aircraft can’t hover within 10 km of the LoC.

In February too, a Pakistani helicopter was seen flying 300 metres from the LoC, NDTV reported.

(With inputs from ANI and NDTV)