Did India Not Allow Use of Its Airspace to Pak To Send Aid to Sri Lanka? No!

MEA spokesperson confirmed that India had granted Pakistan's request the same day.

Fact-Check | The claim of India refusing Pakistan to use its airspace to send humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka is false.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A post is doing the rounds on social media platforms claiming that India recently refused to grant airspace to Pakistan for humanitarian aid flights headed to Sri Lanka following the damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah.

What did the viral post say?: It read, " INDIA’S FACE EXPOSED AGAIN!! India has refused to grant airspace to Pakistan for humanitarian aid flights headed to Sri Lanka to help people affected by the ongoing flood disaster. Pakistan will now send the aid by ship."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(More archives of similar such claims could be found here and here.)

What's the truth?: The official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Randhir Jaiswal, clarified that the viral claim is false.

• He said that India had indeed allowed the usage of its airspace to Pakistan to send humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka.

How did we find that out?: We went through the official X handle of MEA's official spokesperson to find out any statement regarding the viral claim.

• This directed us to a post from 2 December that was captioned, "Our response to media queries regarding a statement by Pakistan on overflight clearance..."

• The statement said that the request for overflight clearance was received by the High Commission of India at 13:00 (1pm) on 1 December. The Indian government expeditiously processed and approved the request the same day at 17:30 (5:30pm) given the urgency of humanitarian assistance for Sri Lanka.

News report: A Sri Lankan daily named The Daily Mirror, in its report, said that India granted rapid clearance for Pakistan's humanitarian aid flight to cyclone-hit Sri Lanka.

• The report mentioned that the clearance was a purely "humanitarian gesture".

• It further said that Sri Lanka has experience massive floods caused by Cyclone Ditwah, which resulted in the death of over 350 people. India has sent 53 tons of relief material to Sri Lanka under its Operation Sagar Bandhu.

The report was published on 2 December.

(Source: Daily Mirror/Screenshot)

Conclusion: It is evident that the viral claim of India rejected the use of its airspace to Pakistan to send humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka is false.

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