Indian aircraft flies over Pak with relief for Iran

After a gap of nearly two years, an Indian aircraft on Tuesday overflew Pakistan carrying 25 tonnes of relief supplies, including a mobile hospital, tents and medicines, for the people of quake-devastated Iran where over 25,000 people have been killed.

The IL-76 IAF aircraft left Delhi at 12.30pm with five doctors and 60 paramedics on board for Bam via Tehran, according to IAF spokesman Squadron Leader Mahesh Upasani. Pakistan permitted the overflight of the IAF aircraft as a special gesture.

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Two more planeloads of relief supplies are in the pipeline, officials said. The assistance would include 10,000 blankets, 1,000 tents, a full complement of doctors to set up a 75-bed mobile hospital along with an operation theatre and medical supplies for four weeks. Separately, 600 tonnes of high protein biscuits, which have reached Bandar Abbas, will, for the present, be despatched to Bam, to meet the emergency requirements.

Air links between India and Pakistan were snapped on January 1, 2002 in the wake of the December 13 terrorist attack on Parliament. The two sides have agreed to restore these links from January 1, 2004.

Incidentally, the last flight to overfly Pakistan was also an IL-76, which flew stranded Afghan diplomats from Kabul to Delhi.