Pakistan, India Conduct 'Routine' Missile Tests
Tensions with India running high

October 4, 2002

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — With border tensions between South Asia's nuclear neighbors running high, Pakistan test fired a new surface-to-surface missile Friday, the official media announced.

The missile is capable of carrying a nuclear or conventional warhead and has an estimated range of 380 miles, military officials and Pakistan defense reports said.

Uneasy neighbor India was given prior warning of the test, according to the state-owned Associated Press of Pakistan.

"This is a sort of routine test," said army spokesman Brig. Salat Raza.

The missile is the latest in the Hatf missile series. The newest one is the Hatf IV, also known as Shaheen missile.

"The test was successfully carried out," Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said. He said it shouldn't inflame tensions with India.

"It has nothing to do with anything but to test the technical aspect of the missile," he said.

Pakistan's missile arsenal includes both Ghauri and Shaheen missiles -- all part of the Hatf series -- and all capable of carrying either a nuclear or conventional warhead.

The ballistic missiles in Pakistan's arsenal have ranges of up to 1,320 miles, capable of hitting any major target in neighbor India.

Missile development in South Asia has been a growing international concern since both India and Pakistan conducted underground nuclear tests in 1998. Both say they have introduced nuclear weapons to their arsenals, but neither has specified the type or numbers of nuclear weapons.

Pakistan conducted its last missile test in May in response to India's tests in January.

Relations between Pakistan and India deteriorated after an attack in December on the Indian Parliament which New Delhi blamed on Pakistani-based militants.

India deployed additional troops to the disputed Kashmir region and both countries put their soldiers on a war footing.

The United States, among other nations, scrambled to avert an all-out war between the two neighbors, who have gone to war three times in the last 55 years.

Both Pakistan and India have said they want peace, but more then one million soldiers are deployed along the disputed Kashmir border, the flashpoint of two previous wars.

Both India and Pakistan claim the Himalayan region in its entirety. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants who are demanding an independent Kashmir or a Kashmir aligned to Pakistan.

Pakistan denies the charges, but says it sympathizes with the Kashmiris and demands a vote to allow the Kashmiris to decide their own future.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,64806,00.html