For the
first time since 2005, New Delhi has violated a bilateral agreement by
leaking to the media news about Pakistan launching a long-range
ballistic missile. Pakistan and India normally notify each other seven
days in advance if they are to test launch a long-range ballistic
missile.
In the recent case when on Wednesday Pakistan
tested its Hatf IV missile, part of its Shaheen I series, it notified
India of the test.However, it was surprising to read on Wednesday
reports from New Delhi that Pakistan was to test a long-range missile in
the Indian Ocean. Someone from the government leaked the information to
the Indian media well before Pakistan carried out the test on
Wednesday.
The Pakistani officials are not ready, for now
at least, to comment publicly except to say that India leaked the news
and violated the 2005 bilateral agreement. The spin that India wanted to
put on the leaked report was to imply that Pakistan’s test was a
reaction to the Indian Agni ICBM test and India was only given a day’s
notice. It is well known in security circles that it takes months to
plan and carry out a test and it is not done whimsically at the drop of a
hat.
While the media insists that Wednesday’s test
involved a long range missile, Shireen M Mazari (PTI Central VP
In-charge Foreign & Security Policy and CEO STR) says that in fact
this was an intermediate range missile test - the Shaheen I solid
fuelled series - and had a range of about 600-700 km and this new test
was to try out an expanded range, but still within the 1000 km
intermediate category.
The launch comes days after India
announced that it had successfully test-launched a new nuclear-capable,
long-range missile. The Agni-V has a range of 5,000 kilometres.India’s
missile test last week brought a muted international response, with
China downplaying its significance, insisting the countries were
partners not rivals, and Washington calling for “restraint” among
nuclear powers.
This was in sharp contrast to the
widespread fury and condemnation that greeted North Korea’s unsuccessful
test launch of a long-range rocket on April 13.“The range of this
intermediate range missile and the fact that it is not simply
surface-to-surface is really a very important development for Pakistan.
All countries including Pakistan have to constantly test and update
their technical parameters, which is why tests are required. And the
successful test of this expanded range was done”, Mazari told.
She
added that it is also significant that the missile tested had its
throwback in water - so it was not a surface-to-surface missile but what
one can see as a beginning of the development of a second strike
capability.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/
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