UN asks India, Pakistan to show restraint; Kashmir row snowballs

Indian airlines Air India and IndiGo are bracing for higher fuel costs and longer journey times as they reroute international flights after Pakistan shut its airspace to them amid tensions over a deadly militant attack in Kashmir. International airlines are not affected by the ban.

But late on Thursday, Air India and IndiGo began to reroute flights to New York, Azerbaijan and Dubai — all of which typically use Pakistan airspace, according to data from tracking website Flightradar24.

The worst-hit airport will be New Delhi, one of the world’s busiest, from where flights cross Pakistani airspace to fly to destinations in the West and the Middle East.

Data from Cirium Ascend showed IndiGo, Air India and its budget unit Air India Express have roughly 1,200 flights combined from New Delhi scheduled for Europe, the Middle East and North America in April.

Air India’s flights to the Middle East from New Delhi will take about an hour longer, which means more fuel and less cargo, said an Indian aviation executive who declined to be identified. Aircraft fuel and oil usually make up about 30% of an airline’s operating costs, by far the biggest component.

FLIGHTS CANCELLED OR ADJUSTED, PILOT ROSTERS TO CHANGE: IndiGo said about 50 international routes may be adjusted slightly. It also said it was cancelling flights to Almaty from April 27 until at least May 7 and to Tashkent from April 28 until May 7.

Indian airlines’ expansion plans have already been complicated by delivery delays from Boeing and Airbus.

One Indian airline pilot told Reuters the ban would force airlines to redo their calculations on permitted flying hours and adjust crew and pilot rosters accordingly.

Another executive said staff at his airline worked late into the night on Thursday on the consequences of the ban.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

IndiGo flight 6E1803 from New Delhi to Baku on Thursday took 5 hours and 43 minutes via a longer route that involved going southwest to India’s Gujarat state and then over the Arabian Sea, before swinging back north over Iran to Azerbaijan, FlightAware data showed. The same flight, through Pakistan airspace, took 5 hours 5 minutes on Wednesday. Pakistan put the ban in place until May 23.

In 2019, India’s government said that the closure of Pakistan airspace for about five months caused a loss of at least $64 million to Air India, IndiGo and other airlines.

UN URGES RESTRAINT: The United Nations urged the nuclear-armed neighbours to show “maximum restraint” following a deadly shooting in the region.

The UN called Pakistan and India “to exercise maximum restraint and to ensure that the situation and the developments we’ve seen do not deteriorate any further.”

“Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe can be and should be resolved peacefully, through meaningful, mutual engagement,” the UN statement said on Friday.

Armed police and soldiers searched homes and forests for militants in Kashmir on Friday and India’s army chief General Upendra Dwivedi visited the area to review security.

Indian financial markets plummeted earlier in the day but recovered some of their losses by the close of trade. The key stock indexes ended lower by 0.7%-0.9%, while the Indian rupee ended 0.2% down, while the 10-year benchmark bond yield rose four basis points.

India’s chief opposition leader Rahul Gandhi also visited Srinagar on Friday, meeting the injured and local government heads.

TROOPS EXCHANGE FIRE IN KASHMIR: Troops from Pakistan and India exchanged fire overnight across the Line of Control in disputed Kashmir, officials said on Friday.

Syed Ashfaq Gilani, a government official in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told AFP Friday that troops exchanged fire along the Line of Control (LOC) that separates the two countries. “There was no firing on the civilian population,” he added.

India’s army confirmed there had been limited firing of small arms that it said had been “initiated by Pakistan,” adding it had been “effectively responded to.”

SENATE’S RESOLUTION: The Senate on Friday unanimously passed a resolution against India’s attempt to link Pakistan to the deadly attack in Pahalgam in the India-held Kashmir.

The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) supported the resolution, moved by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, which stated that Pakistan remains fully capable and prepared to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against any aggression including water terrorism or military provocation.

The Senate emphasised that the killing of innocent civilians is contrary to the values upheld by Pakistan, according to the resolution. It also “rejects all frivolous and baseless attempts to link Pakistan with the Pahalgam Attack of 22nd April 2025 in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”.

The Senate condemned “the orchestrated and mala fide campaign by the Indian government to malign Pakistan, which follows a familiar pattern of exploiting the issue of terrorism for a narrow political goal.”

Tariq Butt / Agencies