Srinagar airport to reopen Friday

NEW DELHI - Srinagar airport will reopen to civilian flights on Friday, it was announced here Wednesday.

The airport was closed to flights Sep 3 to enable the re-carpeting of the runway and this had been completed in “record time”, an official here said.

The flights to Srinagar had been diverted to the Avantipora Air Force Base some 30 km away but on Monday, these were suspended for three days in view of the volatile situation in the Kashmir Valley, with the authorities saying that it would be difficult to provide security to passengers and others.

The Valley has been on the boil since June 11, with 88 people, mainly teenagers and youth, killed in firing by the security forces on stone-pelting protesters.

The government has been mulling the withdrawal of the contentious Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from parts of Jammu and Kashmir to defuse the situation but a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) Monday and an all-party meeting Wednesday chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh failed to arrive at a decision on the issue.