By Václav Paluzga
Diplomatic officials confirmed to on Monday that the Foreign Office (FO) has received formal clearance from India to allow Pakistan’s humanitarian aid flights bound for Sri Lanka to use Indian airspace. The approval enables relief operations to begin immediately as Sri Lanka struggles to cope with widespread devastation caused by severe flooding and landslides.
According to Sri Lankan authorities, military helicopters have been deployed across multiple districts to rescue people trapped by rising waters and collapsing terrain after Cyclone Ditwah battered the island. Officials reported on Monday that the disaster has already claimed at least 355 lives, while another 366 individuals remain unaccounted for, prompting the government in Colombo to issue an urgent appeal for international assistance.
A senior official from Pakistan’s foreign ministry told Dawn that the Indian High Commission had sent formal written approval earlier in the evening, authorising humanitarian flight corridors through Indian airspace. The flights are scheduled to commence on Tuesday, marking a rare coordination effort between Islamabad and New Delhi at a time of strained bilateral relations.
Across Asia, the combined death toll from the week-long series of floods and landslides has risen to more than 1,100, as Sri Lanka and Indonesia mobilise military personnel and emergency workers in large-scale relief and rescue operations. Distinct weather systems delivered continuous, intense rainfall over Sri Lanka, Indonesia’s Sumatra region, southern Thailand, and northern Malaysia throughout the previous week.
Although monsoon season is underway in much of the region, climate scientists warn that global warming is intensifying rainfall patterns, creating more dangerous and prolonged downpours, and amplifying the destructive power of storms. The unrelenting rain has left families stranded on rooftops waiting for rescue teams, while several remote villages have been completely disconnected from outside help due to washed-out roads and collapsed bridges.
The decision to permit overflights comes despite the ongoing airspace restrictions between India and Pakistan. Both countries have kept their skies closed to each other’s aircraft since tensions surged in April following a deadly attack in Pahalgam, located in Indian-occupied Kashmir, which killed 26 people. The incident triggered a brief four-day military confrontation, after which Pakistan imposed an airspace ban that it later extended until November 24.
With humanitarian needs escalating across Sri Lanka and the broader region, the latest clearance from India allows Pakistan to move ahead with vital relief missions despite the diplomatic freeze—a rare exception made strictly for humanitarian purposes as South Asia faces one of its deadliest weather-driven disasters in years.
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