Indo-Pak flights resume
AFP, Lahore
The first Pakistani flight to India in two years took off yesterday from the eastern city of Lahore, marking the official resumption of airlinks between the rival nuclear neighbours and bringing them a major step closer to normal relations. Pakistan International Airways flight PK 270 took off from Lahore's Allama Iqbal International Airport for New Delhi at around 14:20 pm (0945 GMT) with 42 passengers and seven crew on board. It is scheduled to return from the Indian capital at around 18:10. "Presently Lahore-Delhi and Karachi-Mumbai flights have been started," PIA managing director Ahmad Saeed Chaudhry told reporters at the airport. Extra flights would be added in coming months to the six weekly flights from Lahore and Karachi, he added. "The resumption of flights between the two countries is a matter of satisfaction for the people of both sides," said Captain Tasleem Muzaffar, piloting the historic flight. Passenger Rashida Amber was travelling to New Delhi with her nephew Ajmal and daughter Saima to attend her niece's wedding. "I will attend the marriage tonight and we will return on the 24th. Had there been no flight we would not have been able to attend the marriage," she told AFP before taking off. Airlinks were severed by India in January 2002 after it blamed Pakistan-based militants for the attack on its parliament the previous month, in which nine people plus the five gunmen were killed. The attack brought the neighbours to the brink of war for most of last year. Under a series of tie-mending moves since April, the two sides agreed on December 1 to resume flights.
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