1971-02-05
By AFP, Reuters
Page: 6
From Our Correspondent
Delhi, Feb. 4
India today stopped all Pakistan civil aircraft from flying over her territory. Yesterday a less punitive order forbade overflights by Pakistan military planes in retaliation for the blowing up of a hijacked Indian airliner two days ago on Lahore airport.
Today's extension of India's retaliation can gravely impede communication between the two wings of Pakistan, which are separated by about 1,500 miles of Indian territory. There are about 280 civilian flights between West and East Pakistan a week and military flights number between 15 and 20.
In a Note which the Government of India has handed to the Pakistan High Commission here, Delhi has demanded compensation for the loss of the blown up aircraft and of its cargo, passenger luggage and mail. The Note says: "Until the matter is satisfactorily resolved, the Government of India has decided to suspend with immediate effect the overflight of all Pakistani aircraft, civil or military, over the territory of India ".
Mrs. Gandhi. the. Prime Minister, has said in a statement that the Pakistan Government is responsible for allowing the "dastardly crime " of blowing up the hijacked aircraft.
The airliner. a Fokker Friendship of Indian Airlines, was hijacked in an attempt to make India free 36 political detainees in Kashmir. When Delhi rejected this demand, the two hijackers allowed the passengers and crew to leave but later blew up the aircraft.
Today, for the second day, Delhi students demonstrated outside the Pakistan High Commission and stoned the building in protest against the alleged throwing of stones by the Pakistan High Commission staff yesterday. Police fired 189 tear gas shells in dispersing today's demonstration.
In other parts of India there were anti-Pakistan demonstrations and processions and, in several places, effigies of President Yahya Khan were burnt.
Rawalpindi, Feb. 4.-Pakistan commercial aircraft, which normally fly over India, are now forced ,to make a 2 400-mile detour around the subcontinent with a stop-over in Ceylon.
A direct 1100-mile flight between Lahore and Dacca, which would normally take a little over two hours, becomes a 3,500-mile, seven-hour journey. There is no land route.
Apparently anticipating retaliatory action from Pakistan, India has suspended all its commercial flights-about 300 weekly-over Pakistan territory. Flights between Delhi and Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, have been cancelled, and the direct Delhi-to-Moscow flight over Pakistan has been re-routed via Bombay and Teheran.
Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan. President of the Pakistan-supported Government in the Pakistan-held zone of Kashmir, said the destruction of the airliner was "an extreme step and should have been avoided”.
However, he called the hijacking “a gallant act ", although, he added, the aircraft should have been handed over to the Pakistan Government.-A.P.