Pakistani Missile Tests Nerve of India

Pakistan said it test-fired a surface-to-surface ballistic missile today capable of having a nuclear warhead fitted, in a move that was immediately dismissed by India as a publicity stunt ahead of Pakistani elections.

The Indian government said Pakistan advised it of the missile test. India's foreign ministry dismissed the test as "antics" and said it was conducted for public consumption in Pakistan ahead of the October 10 general elections - the first polls since the military seized power in 1999.

Pakistan has more than a million soldiers on a war footing along the border that separates south Asia's two nuclear neighbours.

The missile has an estimated range of 750km (380 miles), according to military officials and Pakistani defence reports. It is the latest in the Hatf missile series and is known as the Hatf IV, or the Shaheen.

Pakistan's military spokesman initially said it was a newly designed missile, but Brigadier Salat Raza said the missile had previously been developed but the test was necessary to monitor its technical capabilities. "This is a sort of routine test," said Brig Raza. Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said: "The test was successfully carried out ... this is just in line with testing the technical aspect of the indigenously produced missile."

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.

Military analysts in Pakistan say the testing was part of a tit-for-tat pattern in south Asia between India and Pakistan and was nothing new. Shireen Mazari, director general of the institute of strategic studies in Islamabad said, "I don't think this will send any signal to India. It is not a new missile. It is just routine testing."

But retired Pakistani army general Talat Masood said: "As long as we both keep doing this it won't help to lower tensions in the region."

Other ballistic missiles in Pakistan's arsenal have ranges of up to 2,200 km, capable of hitting any major target in India.

Missile development in south Asia raised international concerns after both India and Pakistan conducted underground nuclear tests in 1998. Both say they have included nuclear weapons in their arsenals, but neither has specified the type or numbers of nuclear weapons.

Pakistan conducted its last missile test in May in response to Indian tests in January.

Relations between Pakistan and India worsened after a December attack on the Indian parliament that 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 international community scrambled to avert an all-out war between the two neighbours, who have gone to war three times in the last 55 years.

World leaders have cautioned the two countries about forging ahead with missile development - it takes only four minutes for a missile to hit the other country, leaving each nation with only minutes to decide a response.

Both Pakistan and India have said they want peace, tensions remain high along the disputed Kashmir border, the flashpoint of two previous wars. 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 sympathises with the Kashmiris and demands a United Nations resolution calling for a vote by Kashmiris to decide their future be implemented.