NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) may not be ready to launch airstrikes, but it has deployed fighter jets to prevent any air assault aimed at the national capital.
However, officials deny the IAF deployed its MiG-29 fighter jets at the Hindon Airbase near Delhi amidst tensions four days ago.
Defence Minister AK Antony on Tuesday ruled out military action against Pakistan but said bilateral relations would not be normal until Islamabad took action against terrorists operating from its soil.
IAF jets were a regular deployment at Hindon until about a decade ago when they were moved to Ambala in Haryana.
Other officials said the urgency to re-deploy the fighter planes near Delhi arose because it would take them at least 15 minutes to arrive over the capital from Ambala in case of an emergency.
Meanwhile, the Indian government declared the airspace over all nuclear power installations as no-fly zones to prevent any attack. Indian Civil Aviation Director General Nasim Zaid issued an order directing no person shall fly or assist in flying an aircraft up to the height of 10,000 feet over the area included within a 10-kilometre radius of the nuclear installations.
Until the fresh order by Zaid, Tarapur Atomic Station in Maharashtra was the only no-fly zone in India. However, nuclear power plants like Kalpakkam near Chennai, Rawatbhata near Kota, Narora in UP, Kakrapar near Surat, Kaiga in Karnataka and Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu will now be included in the no-fly zones.
Only the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) was left out as it comes in the flight path of the Mumbai airports runway.