Commercial and cargo flights can now fully access Pakistani airspace for the first time since a skirmish with India in February. The airspace closure had caused costly diversions of international flights.
"Pakistan's airspace is completely open for all kinds of flights with immediate effect," the country's civil aviation authority said.
Following a deadly suicide attack in February on Indian paramilitary police in the disputed Kashmir region, Indian fighter jets entered Pakistan and launched airstrikes. A few days after the strike, Pakistan's air force shot down an Indian fighter jet and captured its pilot.
Once immediate tensions eased, parts of Pakistani airspace were reopened, but the airspace along the border with India remained closed, affecting many international carriers.
Pakistan is located in the middle of an important aviation corridor linking the South Asian region with Southeast Asia, and the airspace closure forced hundreds of commercial and cargo flights to make costly diversions every day.
India's Ministry of Civil Aviation said after the announcement there were no further restrictions on airspace in either country.
"Flights have started using the closed air routes, bringing a significant relief for airlines," it said.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, which they both claim in full, but rule in part. Since both countries acquired nuclear weapons in 1999, any escalation of military conflict between the two countries has a dangerous risk of a nuclear confrontation.
The confrontation over the Kashmir bombing in February was the first incursion of the Indian air force into Pakistani airspace since the two countries fought a war in 1971.
India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price
India and Pakistan continue to clash over Kashmir, a volatile Himalayan region that has been experiencing an armed insurgency for nearly three decades. Many Kashmiris are now fed up with both Islamabad and New Delhi.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Mustafa
An unprecedented danger?
On February 27, Pakistan's military said that it had shot down two Indian fighter jets over disputed Kashmir. A Pakistani military spokesman said the jets were shot down after they'd entered Pakistani airspace. It is the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have conducted air strikes against each other.
Image: Reuters/D. Ismail
India drops bombs inside Pakistan
The Pakistani military has released this image to show that Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistani territory for the first time since the countries went to war in 1971. India said the air strike was in response to a recent suicide attack on Indian troops based in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan said there were no casualties and that its airforce repelled India's aircraft.
Image: AFP/ISPR
No military solution
Some Indian civil society members believe New Delhi cannot exonerate itself from responsibility by accusing Islamabad of creating unrest in the Kashmir valley. A number of rights organizations demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government reduce the number of troops in Kashmir and let the people decide their fate.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Mustafa
No end to the violence
On February 14, at least 41 Indian paramilitary police were killed in a suicide bombing near the capital of India-administered Kashmir. The Pakistan-based Jihadi group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility. The attack, the worst on Indian troops since the insurgency in Kashmir began in 1989, spiked tensions and triggered fears of an armed confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers.
Image: IANS
A bitter conflict
Since 1989, Muslim insurgents have been fighting Indian forces in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir - a region of 12 million people, about 70 percent of whom are Muslim. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
India strikes down a militant rebellion
In October 2016, the Indian military has launched an offensive against armed rebels in Kashmir, surrounding at least 20 villages in Shopian district. New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing the militants, who cross over the Pakistani-Indian "Line of Control" and launch attacks on India's paramilitary forces.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/C. Anand
Death of a Kashmiri separatist
The security situation in the Indian part of Kashmir deteriorated after the killing of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July 2016. Protests against Indian rule and clashes between separatists and soldiers have claimed hundreds of lives since then.
Image: Reuters/D. Ismail
The Uri attack
In September 2016, Islamist militants killed at least 17 Indian soldiers and wounded 30 in India-administered Kashmir. The Indian army said the rebels had infiltrated the Indian part of Kashmir from Pakistan, with initial investigations suggesting that the militants belonged to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group, which has been active in Kashmir for over a decade.
Image: UNI
Rights violations
Indian authorities banned a number of social media websites in Kashmir after video clips showing troops committing grave human rights violations went viral on the Internet. One such video that showed a Kashmiri protester tied to an Indian army jeep — apparently as a human shield — generated outrage on social media.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/
Demilitarization of Kashmir
Those in favor of an independent Kashmir want Pakistan and India to step aside and let the Kashmiri people decide their future. "It is time India and Pakistan announce the timetable for withdrawal of their forces from the portions they control and hold an internationally supervised referendum," Toqeer Gilani, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in Pakistani Kashmir, told DW.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Singh
No chance for secession
But most Kashmir observers don't see it happening in the near future. They say that while the Indian strategy to deal strictly with militants and separatists in Kashmir has partly worked out, sooner or later New Delhi will have to find a political solution to the crisis. Secession, they say, does not stand a chance.
