NEW DELHI: As the India-Pakistan military conflict intensifies, Pakistan has decided to use civilian flights as cover to provoke India by launching a series of drone, missile, and artillery attacks on military installations in several states. The Indian government has highlighted Pakistan’s irresponsible behavior, as it did not close its airspace despite launching an unprovoked attack, posing a grave threat to international aircraft carriers. At the same time, India has already diverted flights away from the western border areas closer to the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Boundary (IB). Anticipating significant losses to its air assets from India’s military response to Pakistan’s unprovoked escalation, Islamabad is resorting to unprofessional tactics to save itself. As a result, it has even jeopardized the lives of innocent civilians from foreign countries. The international community should take serious note of Pakistan’s suicidal behavior and pressure it to shut its airspace for civilian flights.
As an expected reaction from a responsible nation, the Indian government issued a statement saying, “The Indian Air Force demonstrated considerable restraint in its response, thus ensuring the safety of international civil carriers.” Following the onset of the military crisis between the two countries on May 7, Indian airspace was completely devoid of civil air traffic due to the declared closure. In contrast, civil airlines in Pakistan continued to operate along the air route between Karachi and Lahore. Using those flights as cover, the Pakistan military violated Indian airspace multiple times across the entire western border in an unsuccessful attempt to target Indian military infrastructure. However, India demonstrated considerable restraint in its response to repeated Pakistani provocations in order to safeguard the lives of innocent civilians traveling on those flights.
In the media briefing, Indian officials provided evidence by quoting flight path data from the flight tracking service Flightradar24 regarding Saudi Arabian budget airline Flynas flight XY883. This flight departed Dammam for Lahore at around 5:50 pm UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on May 7 and landed at Lahore airport at around 9:10 pm UTC. Indian Standard Time is five and a half hours behind UTC, meaning the flight landed at Lahore Airport at approximately 2:40 a.m. on May 8. Lahore, as a major airport in Pakistan, is also situated near the country’s international border with India. While New Delhi suspended commercial flight operations at about 25 airports near the border with Pakistan to keep civilian air traffic away from potential danger, Pakistan had not officially suspended civil flights at its airports near the border until May 9. This illustrates the true nature of the Pakistani state, which seemingly disregards the safety and security of its citizens.
It is not the first time that the Pakistan military has used civilians as shields to protect themselves and allow for collateral damage. Throughout past conflicts, Pakistan has targeted civilian areas to conduct attacks on India and hide before India responds to their provocations. There are also reports and video evidence of the Pakistan army utilizing the farmlands of local farmers in the western border areas to initiate fire assaults on India. Similarly, Pakistan-sponsored terror outfits harass civilians in J&K and use them as shields against Indian armed forces. In the ongoing military crisis, Pakistan has once again endangered civilian lives and attempted to internationalize the situation by provoking India into mistakenly targeting a civilian aircraft. In a grave provocation, Pakistan deployed over 300 to 400 drones at approximately 36 locations along the border with India.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war following the October 7 surprise attack by Hamas in Southern Israel, Tel Aviv has claimed that Hamas uses civilians as “human shields.” This allegation gained traction after a massive tunnel network was discovered beneath the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Similarly, Pakistan is adopting the human shield tactics of Hamas, which has intensified its terrorism connections with Islamabad in the last two years. Hamas leaders have frequently visited Pakistan to seek shelter, motivate, and possibly train anti-India terror outfits in the country. These close ties between Hamas and Pakistan may prove advantageous in the ongoing conflict with India, and more civilians will be used as human shields to obscure the failures of Pakistan’s military establishment.
While India has conducted precision strikes on terrorist infrastructure in various regions of Pakistan as a measured response to the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan is openly targeting Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir. In the Poonch area of J&K, Pakistan deliberately attacked a Sikh Gurudwara to incite communal tensions and falsely accuse India. Similarly, by keeping its airspace open for civilian flights after launching an unprovoked drone and missile attack on India, Pakistan aimed to escalate the military crisis, which India recognized and skillfully avoided. All these tactics suggest that, instead of improving their image, neither Pakistani terrorists nor the military establishment considers the well-being of the country’s civilian population. Despite the escalating crisis and increasing prospects of unprovoked attacks from Pakistan, the Indian armed forces have upheld professionalism under challenging circumstances.
Fearing a humiliating defeat by India, Pakistan is using all available tools to protect itself. The civilian populations on both sides face uncertainty and fear of retribution from the Pakistani military, which is not missing any opportunity to escalate the crisis. Under these circumstances, international airlines should avoid Pakistani airspace to prevent accidents. Any inadvertent attack on civilian flights would attract global attention. Such is Pakistan’s ploy against India that it could even sacrifice civilian flights to claim victory against India at the cost of human lives. Therefore, worldwide civil aviation authorities, airline companies, and foreign governments should avoid Pakistani airspace and condemn Islamabad over its highly dangerous tactic against India involving civilians. Since Pakistan-sponsored terrorists brutally murdered unarmed civilians in Pahalgam, its Army would not hesitate to repeat it again.
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