Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Pakistan successfully test-fired yesterday a cruise missile capable of delivering nuclear warheads deep into historic rival India. A military statement said the indigenously developed Babur missile, or Hatf VII, can carry warheads as far as 700km,: a further step since it last tested a missile from the same series in March. The military hailed yesterday's test of the Babur missile as a success that would "consolidate Pakistan's strategic capability and strengthen national security”.
President Pervez Musharraf congratulated the scientists and engineers involved in the project.
Both Pakistan and India have tested a series of missiles since 2002, when the two countries came close to a fourth war. The neighbours, both nuclear powers, have fought three wars since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1947.
The distance between Islamabad and the Indian capital, New Delhi, is 680km, just within the range of the Babur missile. Even if both countries signed an accord on reducing the risk of accidents with nuclear weapons as part of a four-year-old peace process, development of nuclear weapons technology continues a pace in both nations.
The two countries are required under previous agreements to inform each other before conducting such missile tests.