Pakistan Cancels All Flights To PoK As Tensions With India Soar: Report

Days after shutting its airspace to all flights owned and operated by Indian carriers, Pakistan today cancelled its own flights to the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The move comes as Islamabad fears military action by India in the wake of the horrific terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in which 26 tourists were shot dead in a religiously-motivated attack.

Pakistan International Airlines or PIA as it is usually called, has cancelled all flights to and from Gilgit and Skardu in PoK. News reports in Pakistan revealed the flight schedules of PIA on Wednesday, which showed that the four flights to Skardu - one each from Karachi and Lahore, and two from Islamabad - have been cancelled.

Four other flights from Islamabad to Gilgit have also been cancelled, Pakistan's Urdu daily Jang reported. Another English daily Express Tribune confirmed the news, saying, Pakistan has stepped up its vigil, especially in monitoring its airspace amid tensions with India. "For security reasons, all commercial flights scheduled to operate to and from Gilgit and Skardu have been cancelled," it stated.

Pakistani officials have told the newspaper that the measures are "precautionary" and aimed at ensuring "its airspace" is secured. It is not clear however, if this is a temporary measure or a long-term one.

Besides the regions that fall in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Islamabad has also heightened its security and surveillance across the nation.

Twenty-six people, including a foreign national, were shot dead by terrorists after they were asked to prove their allegiance to Islam. The targeted killings, which were religiously-motivated, have been condemned globally.

Kashmiris have protested throughout the Union Territory condemning terror and blaming Pakistan for it, while fellow Indians were equally infuriated over the cowardly act.

The attack was claimed by Pakistan-based terror group The Resistance Front - an offshoot of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.