NEW DELHI, Apr 11: The chartered business jet transporting Tahawwur Rana, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attack, avoided Pakistani airspace on Thursday while coming from the United States to Delhi, and took a longer route to reach India.
However, the Gulfstream G550 – a luxury ultra-long-range business jet – took the usual route over Pakistan during its return to the UAE from Delhi.
Commercial and business chartered flights flying from the US to India and vice versa generally fly over Pakistan. The development comes at a time when ties between India and Pakistan have been at its lowest ebb over terrorism and New Delhi’s move to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
India and Pakistan had closed their airspaces in a tit-for-tat move in 2019 following a standoff over the terror attack in Pulwama, which killed 44 soldiers. However, both sides reopened their airspaces for civilian flights months later. Last year in August, an aircraft carrying Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew for around 46 minutes through Pakistani airspace on its way back from Poland.
Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistan-origin, was brought to Delhi on a special flight that landed around 6.30 pm on Thursday. He was formally arrested by the NIA upon landing and has been remanded in custody till April 29. The Gulfstream G550 that was used belongs to a Vienna-based private chartered jet management company.
The flight records show that the jet took off from Miami, Florida, at 2.15 am local time on Wednesday (11.45 am IST). It landed in Bucharest, Romania, at 7 pm local time (9.30 pm IST) the same day. The flight halted in the Romanian capital for nearly 11 hours, before resuming its journey to New Delhi. Records show the aircraft left Bucharest at 6.15 am local time (8.45 am IST) on Thursday, and headed for New Delhi.
(Manas Dasgupta)
