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Pakistan launches another missile

Pakistan tested a second nuclear capable missile today, upping the ante in the missile race with India.

The newest surface-to-surface missile is the Shaheen I, the first in a new series of missiles, which has a reported range of 750 km, considerably less than the Ghauri II ballistic missile which Pakistan tested yesterday.

The 13-feet-long nine-tonne Shaheen I employs a solid fuel motor capable of carrying a 1,000 kg payload and can be tipped with a nuclear warhead. However, a foreign ministry statement said the Shaheen I has a range of 600 km.

"The missile was tested at 0958 hours (1028 hours IST) and it was a success,'' said an official at Pakistan's atomic energy commission, which conducted the latest missile test.

'These flight tests have strengthened national security and will help in maintaining a strategic balance in South Asia,' the foreign ministry statement issued soon after the test said.

Officials said the test was conducted at the Sonmiani naval base, in southwestern Baluchistan province, some 50 km from Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.

The foreign ministry said the Shaheen test 'concludes, for now, the series of flight tests involving solid and liquid fuel rocket motor technologies, which started yesterday.'

The missile was produced by the Pakistan AEC with the help of its prominent scientist Dr Samar Mubarak Mand. Dr Mand, who went to China to consult Chinese scientists, returned home recently.

Pakistan also renewed its offer to India to enter into a strategic restraint regime to check an arms race. "We must enter into this restraint regime which will define the limits of such weapons,'' foreign ministry spokesman Tariq Altaf said. "We believe that after the Agni-II test by India, Pakistan's proposal for a strategic restraint regime has acquired a greater validity.''

In comments published today in the English-language newspaper, The News, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan's nuclear programme, dismissed allegations that Pakistan's missile technology has been purchased from North Korea.

Pakistan also is accused of buying M-11 ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, from China, a charge both countries deny.

''They (the Western countries) have always been underestimating and under-rating our capability,'' Dr Khan was quoted as saying. ''All the time whatever we do there is always a blame that we got things from here and there.''

A second more advanced Shaheen missile with a range of 2,300 km is apparently ready and waiting to be tested. There has been no announcement of when or whether that ballistic missile would be tested.

China called on India and Pakistan to take steps to prevent an arms race today, hours after Pakistan tested a second missile.

''Both sides should seek concrete avenues to avoid the acceleration of an arms race in South asia so that peace and stability can prevail,'' Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said.

In contrast to its more strongly worded condemnation of the Indian test, China's reaction to Pakistan's tests was muted. Sun avoided using the word "regret'' in his statement about the Pakistani missiles, as he did after the Indian test.

Asked about the discrepancy in reactions, Sun replied: "If you think there is some difference you can come to your own judgment."

UNI

EARLIER REPORTS:
Ghauri highlights need to refashion security measures
A Ghauri strike
India's Vulnerability Index is not Ghauri-specific
What story does Ghauri tell us?
India is more worried about Ghauri than Pak bomb: Khan
Institutionalised Mendacity over Ghauri is Frightening
Ghauri missile based on smuggled North Korean technology: New York Times

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