The Pakistani Government has sealed off the country's airspace following an outbreak in clashes with India on Wednesday, February 27.

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) carried out airstrikes and shot down two Indian Air Force (IAF) jets, Pakistani officials said, a day after an IAF Mirage 2000s targetted a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) training camp in Balakot inside Pakistan. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has since said that only one of its MiG 21s was shot down with the pilot now in custody in Pakistan.

India blames JeM for a suicide-bomber attack on February 14 which killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and the attacker. The attack took place in Lethpora in the Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PKCAA) said via social media that it had issued a NOTAM warning all traffic that its airspace was closed until further notice.

All flight operations at the airports of Lahore International, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Karachi International, Sialkot and Islamabad International in and around the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces have also been suspended. Peshawar International Airport has also been commandeered by the Pakistani military, an official told Dawn.

For its part, the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has reopened nine airports - Srinagar, Jammu, Leh Kushok Bakula Rimpochee, Pathankot, Amritsar, Shimla, Dharamsala, Kullu, and Pithoragarh - in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab that it had earlier closed to commercial traffic.

As a precautionary measure, all airspace north of New Delhi was closed off earlier on Wednesday as tensions flared.