After India’s military strike at the Rahim Yar Khan airbase in Pakistan’s Punjab province, the sole runway at the airbase has been declared as non-operational for a week, according to a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) issued by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) Saturday evening, and reviewed by The Indian Express. The NOTAM took effect at 4 pm Pakistan time (4:30 pm IST) on Saturday (May 10) and will be in effect at least till 4:59 am Pakistan time (5:29 IST) on May 18.
The NOTAM said that closure is due to work in progress, without going into specifics, and that it will not be available for flight operations. The temporary closure of this important airbase in the southern part of Pakistan’s Punjab province and the timing and duration of the closure lends credence to reports that claimed that the facility’s runway was directly hit by an Indian missile, and needed extensive repair work.
“RWY NOT AVBL FOR FLT OPERATION WIP.,” the NOTAM stated.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), use of the code ‘WIP’ in a NOTAM refers to work in progress. As per the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), ‘WIP’ describes any work being done on the airport surface. Given that the NOTAM specifically mentions the runway at the airbase, it indicates that work in progress is on the runway itself.
The Rahim Yar Khan airbase also houses the Sheikh Zayed International airport. Its sole runway—Runway 01/19—has a bituminous surface and is 3,000 metres or 9,843 feet in length, per airport data available on Flightradar24.
The airbase was one the multiple key Pakistani military targets that India hit amid a military conflict that lasted four days, before the two nuclear-powered neighbours arrived at a ceasefire understanding on Saturday evening. The airbase was among the six Pakistani military targets hit on Saturday—Rafiki, Murid, Chaklala, Sukkur and Juniya being the other five—by India using “air-launched precision weapons” from Indian fighter aircraft. The Indian response followed Pakistan’s “escalatory” and “provocative” actions in which it attempted air intrusions at multiple locations, which were thwarted by the Indian armed forces.
India and Pakistan engaged in the worst fighting in decades in the wake of India’s precision strikes at nine terror infrastructure locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as part of ‘Operation Sindoor’ in the wee hours on Wednesday. These strikes were in response to the deadly attack at Pahalgam on April 22 in which 26 people, almost all of them tourists, were gunned down by Pakistan-backed terrorists.
Following India’s precision strikes at terror infrastructure early on Wednesday, the tensions saw a major escalation with Pakistan launching drone and missile attacks against India all along the Line of Control and the international border, and India neutralising Pakistani attacks and retaliating with strikes at Pakistani military assets in various parts of that country.
