Pakistan test-fires ballistic missile amid tensions with India rise
Al Jazeera :
Pakistan’s military says it has successfully test-fired a ballistic missile as tensions with neighbouring India over a deadly shooting attack in Indian-administered Kashmir last month remain high.
The surface-to-surface missile, named the Abdali Weapon System, with a range of 450km (280 miles), was successfully tested as part of an exercise on Saturday, Pakistan’s government said.
It added that the launch was “aimed at ensuring the operational readiness of troops and validating key technical parameters, including the missile’s advanced navigation system and enhanced maneuverability features”.
The tactical missile, which can carry conventional and nuclear warheads, is named after Ahmad Shah Abdali, the 18th-century founder of modern Afghanistan who led numerous invasions of the Indian subcontinent.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated the scientists, engineers and those behind the successful missile test.
The ballistic missiles test-firing came three days after Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Islamabad had “credible intelligence” that India intends to launch a military strike within 24 to 36 hours in response to the killing of 25 male tourists and a Kashmiri last month in Indian-administered Kashmir.
India and Pakistan both stake a claim on the entire Kashmir region, but rule over parts of it. They have seen tensions spike over the issue frequently since their independence from British rule in 1947.
New Delhi accuses Islamabad of backing the April 22 attack in the scenic Pahalgam area by suspected Kashmiri rebels, and alleges that Pakistani nationals were involved in the killings. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he has given his military “full operational freedom” to respond as he promised to pursue those who had supported the attack “to the ends of the Earth”.
Pakistani minister Tarar said the Indian leaders want to use the Pahalgam attack as a “false pretext” to potentially strike Pakistan.
On Friday, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir presided over a meeting of his top commanders about the “current Pakistan-India standoff”, a military statement said.
Munir “underscored the critical importance of heightened vigilance and proactive readiness across all fronts”.
Since the attack – the deadliest in Kashmir on civilians in years – India and Pakistan have exchanged tit-for-tat diplomatic barbs and expulsions, and shut border crossings. India also suspended its participation in the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan.
The two nuclear-armed countries have also exchanged gunfire along the militarised Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing Kashmir between them, while Pakistan has threatened to suspend its participation in the 1972 Simla Agreement that underpins the LoC.
People in Indian-administered Kashmir have been concerned about the devastating ramifications of a potential military conflict between the two nations.