Pakistan Test-Fires Second Missile Despite International Uproar

NUKEWARS

Combo of Pakistan's new medium range surface-to-surface ballistic missile Hatf-V (Ghauri) test from an undisclosed location in northwestern part of the country, 25 May 2002. Pakistan test fired a nuclear-capable missile as President Pervez Musharraf said that while the country did not want a conflict with India it was ready for war. The missile tested was an 'indigenously developed medium range surface to surface ballistic missile Hatf-V (Ghauri). AFP Photo

US Officials Disappointed Over Pakistan Continuing Missile Testing
Washington (AFP) May 26, 2002 Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed concern Sunday that Pakistan continued to test nuclear-capable missiles at a moment of heightened tensions with India.

"We've expressed our disappointment that they're undertaking missile tests at this very, very tense time," Powell told CNN.

"But they notified appropriately all nations around Pakistan that they would be doing it, to include the Indians."

A million Indian and Pakistani troops are facing each other down and exchanging occasional fire across their common border, raising the specter of a hot war between the nuclear rivals.

Earlier, Pakistan defiantly conducted its second test-firing of a nuclear-capable missile but came under intense pressure to curb militant attacks on India staged from disputed Kashmir state.

Indian diplomats say Pakistan permits Muslim separatists to operate from its territory.

Pakistan passed off the two tests of the medium-range surface-to-surface missiles as routine and had announced the series of tests in advance, which Powell said dispelled tensions.

"They notified appropriately al nations around Pakistan that they would be doing it, to include the Indians," Powell said. "The Indians seem to be taking it in stride."

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice expressed more concern. "We're very disappointed that the Pakistani government decided to carry out these missile tests," Rice told Fox News. "In fact, if (the tests) are routine, as the Pakistanis have said, the timing is not particularly good."

Meanwhile, Bush urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to work harder to block cross-border incursions by terrorists. "He must perform," Bush said during a joint press conference with French President Jacques Chirac.

The US president said he was "more concerned that Musharraf show results" in the global fight on terrorism than with the missile tests.

by Sami Zubeiri
Islamabad (AFP) May 26, 2002
Pakistan Sunday defiantly conducted its second test-firing of a nuclear-capable missile but came under intense pressure to curb militant attacks on India staged from disputed Kashmir state.

On Saturday the Ghauri medium-range missile, capable of striking deep into India, was tested in the face of loud international calls for restraint to avert a war with India.

The weapon fired Sunday was a newly-developed short-range Hatf-III (Ghaznavi) capable of carrying warheads up to 290 kilometres (180 miles) with great accuracy, an official statement said.

After the two successful firings, Pakistan's defences were "impregnable" Joint Chiefs of Staff committee chairman General Aziz Ahmed Khan said in the statement.

"(The) concentration of troops on borders and coercive attitude of any power could not frighten the valiant armed forces of Pakistan, whose soldiers were more keen to embrace martyrdom than saving their lives," he said.

India said in reaction to both the tests that it was "not impressed" and dismissed the exercise as "antics".

But Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee reiterated that New Delhi's patience was running out with militants it claims are sponsored by Pakistan and responsible for a series of bloody attacks that have sent tensions soaring.

"We want to tell the international community that when the whole world is united against terrorism, the US forces are in Afghanistan, why should we bear these acts of terrorism and for how long?" he said.

He received support Sunday from US President George W. Bush who urged Pakistan, a staunch ally of Washington since September 11, to prevent cross-border attacks into Kashmir.

"He must perform," Bush said of Musharraf during a joint press conference with French President Jacques Chirac.

The US president said he was "more concerned that Musharraf show results" in the global fight on terrorism than with the two weekend missile tests.

Pakistan and India have around a million troops massed on their border and have been exchanging bellicose statements and artillery fire in the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir for the past week.

The stand-off began in December when India blamed Pakistan for an attack on its parliament and escalated on May 14 when 35 people were killed in a massacre in disputed Kashmir, which New Delhi again blamed on Islamabad.

The threat of war has drawn intense international pressure on the two capitals, and concern deepened when Pakistan said it would conduct a series of missile tests from Saturday through Tuesday.

Bush earlier expressed "strong reservations" over Pakistan's tests, but urged India not to see them as a "provocation".

"Everyone can understand danger in the region," he said in Saint Petersburg as he wound up a visit to Russia.

"We are hopeful that slowly but surely we can erode the distrust. Any time you have countries with nuclear arms this kind of tension is dangerous. We just have got to continue to work the problem."

Pakistan said the tests were routine and had "nothing to do with the current situation", but analysts say they are a clear flexing of muscles by the smaller state after threatening comments by its giant neighbour.

As international diplomatic efforts to avert a war went into overdrive, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to arrange peace talks between the Pakistani and Indian leaders on the sidelines of a June 3-5 conference in Kazakhstan.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Safonov is to arrive here Monday to discuss the summit, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan.

Pakistan is under intense pressure to clamp down on Islamic militants blamed for the attacks on India, as the United States is anxious to avoid any conflict which could weaken the international coalition against terrorism.

Kashmir has been the cause of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

NUKEWARS

Indo-Pak War Fears Recede As Diplomatic Pressure Bears Down

New Delhi (AFP) May 24, 2002
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee headed to the hills for a brief vacation Friday as fears of immediate warfare between India and Pakistan began to recede under intense international diplomatic pressure.

India Could Enforce Naval Blockade, Stage Limited Strikes: Analysts

New Delhi (AFP) May 24, 2002
India's numerically-larger military is likely to favour a two-pronged approach should war erupt with nuclear rival Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir, military officials and experts said.

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