Trespass tally

New Delhi, Dec. 15: Pakistani aircraft violated Indian airspace 17 times till November this year, according to an answer given by defence minister A.K. Anthony to Parliament.

But in a marked departure from precedent, none of the instances has snowballed into a diplomatic row, although New Delhi has reported them to Islamabad through official channels.

Between January and March, there were 14 instances of airspace violations over Jammu and Kashmir. They involved Pakistani helicopters assumed to be delivering relief or evacuating patients from villages opposite Tangdhar, Tithwal and Uri that were devastated by the earthquake on October 8, 2005.

In August, a Pakistani unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) entered Indian airspace over an unspecified location.

“I think it is understood and appreciated by both sides that there was a liberal view of airspace violations, taken in the aftermath of the earthquake,” a senior air force official said.

Both sides accept that airspace along the Line of Control is difficult to monitor because of the unevenness of the border. Despite this being the case for decades, airspace violations have had a tend-ency to become issues of concern.

Both sides usually observe a “no-fly zone” within 5 km of the LoC. After the earthquake, it was accepted that relief had to reach villages almost on the LoC and the rule was relaxed.

Immediately after the earthquake, a United Nations helicopter landed in Uri on the Indian side, mistaking it to be a Pakistani helipad. That incident, too, was overlooked.

But in 2002, when the then western air command chief, Air Marshal Jimmy Bhatia, accidentally flew into PoK airspace while attempting to land a transport plane in Kargil, his plane was fired at. The AN-32 barely managed to limp back to Leh and Bhatia was transferred from his post as a punishment. He has since retired.

The defence minister said instances of airspace violations this year have been “taken up with the concerned through diplomatic channels as per established procedure”. There was no figure available on violations, if any, of Pakistani airspace by Indian aircraft.