The Indian Air Force on Friday said that it had intercepted an aircraft that took off from Georgia and forced it to land at an airfield in Jaipur after it diverted from its flight plan to enter India, reports said. The Antonov-12 aircraft was flying from Tbilisi in Georgia to Delhi via Karachi. Unidentified officials said that the flight entered the Indian airspace from an unscheduled point via Pakistan.

The Indian Air Force described the interception as successful. “The aircraft entered Indian air space from an unscheduled point in North Gujarat,” Hindustan Times quoted the IAF as saying. “It was successfully intercepted by highly alert IAF Air Defence aircraft and was forced to land at Jaipur airfield.”

The statement said that IAF aircraft shadowed the flight and forced to it to land in Jaipur. “The aircraft did not follow the authorised Air Traffic Services route and was not responding to radio calls from Indian controlling agencies,” the statement said. “Since ATS routes in the area were closed due to the current geopolitical situation and the aircraft entered Indian air space from an unscheduled point, the air defence interceptor on operational readiness was scrambled and vectored towards the unknown aircraft for investigation.”