, ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan conducted its second test in five days of a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead deep into India but denied the tests were linked to an apparent deadlock in the neighbours' six-month peace process.
“We have successfully test fired the Shaheen 1,” military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP on Wednesday.
The surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which can carry any type of warhead up to 700 kilometers (434 miles), was launched at 8:13 am (0313 GMT) from a secret location, Sultan said.
Pakistan notified neighbouring countries, including rival nuclear power India, ahead of the test in what the military called “a spirit of confidence building.”
The Shaheen launch comes just five days after the test-firing of Pakistan's short-range Ghaznavi missile. Both are part of the locally-built Hatf series.
The tests are the first by Pakistan since peace moves, now faltering, began with rival India in April.
Since reappointing ambassadors and reviving a cross-border bus services the two sides appear no closer to reviving dialogue stalled since July 2001 and they have been increasingly accusing each other of damaging the peace process.
But the military insisted the tests were carried out purely for technical reasons.
“The test is part of the ongoing series of tests of Pakistan's indigenous missile systems,” a military statement said.
“All technical parameters required to be tested were successfully validated.”
Analaysts linked the tests to Pakistan's growing frustration at India's superior weapons capability and recent military acquisitions.
Islamabad has been complaining increasingly to the United States of a “conventional military imbalance” with India, pointing in particular to New Delhi's deal with Israel to purchase a billion-dollar airborne early warning radar system.
“This is part of our effort to address the growing arms imbalance (between India and Pakistan) and indigenise our missile capability to bolster our security vis-a-vis India,” analyst Riffat Hussain of Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University told AFP.
“The timing is significant in the sense that the tests come on the heels of Indian efforts to acquire a wide range of anti-missile capability.
India and Israel agreed in principle on the sale of the Airborne Warning And Control Systems (AWACS) during Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news – web sites)'s visit to India in September but a formal signing of the contract is not expected until later this year.
Ayesha Siddiqa, the Islamabad-based correspondent of Jane's Defence Weekly, said the tests were not “sabre-rattling.”
“These are the tests that Pakistan has to do as long as territorial security is the primary thing.
“You have to bolster your defences, and given the conventional imbalance between India and Pakistan you need to invest in ballistic missiles capability, and with nuclear weapons we need to develop our capabilities.”
Sultan Wednesday said yet more tests would be conducted in the near future “if required”.
President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali congratulated the scientists and engineers involved in the development of the Shaheen-1 “on their oustanding success”, the military statement said.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since Pakistan split from India on independence from Britain in 1947.
Source: AP
