Nuclear enemies India and Pakistan today defiantly conducted missile tests at the height of the US-led war in Iraq, amid rising tensions in South Asia over the weekend massacre of 24 Hindus in disputed Kashmir.
India fired its surface-to-surface Prithvi missile, which can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead a distance of 150 kilometres, at 6 a.m. Irish time from a range in eastern Orissa state.
Pakistan, too, fired a short-range missile but it was not known if the test followed or preceded the launch of India's 8.5-metre Prithvi, which has a minimum range of 40 kilometres.
Indian military sources insisted the Pakistani missile launch was a tit-for-tat test-flight.
In Islamabad, however, the Pakistani government claimed its missile test had been conducted without prior knowledge of its rival's.
"We have conducted a successful Abdali missile test today and we had given prior information to all our neighbours about the test," government spokesman Mr Aziz Ahmed Khan said.
"The missile test by India came as a surprise. We were not notified about the test in accordance with the memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries on February 21st, 1991," he said.
The Abdali surface-to-surface missile has a range of up to 200 kilometers and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, an official source said.
Military experts and political analysts in India said the timing of the Prithvi launch was calibrated to send a message to the United States, currently waging an all-out war in Iraq, as well as a separate warning to Pakistan.
"We visualise the test as a signal to Pakistan that the massacre of 24 Hindus in Kashmir has led to a fair amount of anger all over India and that such things are no more acceptable," said N.K. Sareen, a former chief of the Indian air force.
AFP