Pakistan Partly Reopens Airspace As Tensions With India Ease

Amid heightened tensions with India, Pakistani civil society activists march in a peace rally in Lahore on February 28.

Pakistan has reopened part of the country’s airspace amid further signs of de-escalation with rival India.

The country’s civil aviation authority said on March 1 that all domestic and international flights will be allowed to and from the cities of Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, and Quetta.

It said other airports, including the one in Lahore that borders India, will remain closed until March 4.

Islamabad closed its air space on February 27 after saying that Pakistan's military shot down two Indian warplanes and captured a pilot.

The pilot is expected to be handed back to India later on March 1, a move Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said was a gesture of peace.

On February 28, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington was mediating to help defuse the crisis, and that he expected "reasonably decent news."

The United Nations and world powers -- including the United States, China, Russia, and the European Union -- have expressed concerns that escalating tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi could spiral out of control.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP