Missile Test Tit For Tat

Pakistan on Friday test-fired a surface-to-surface missile capable of carrying nuclear payloads into India after giving its uneasy neighbor advance notice.

A short time later, India conducted a missile test of its own.

Pakistan declared the test a success and insisted it was not intended to inflame tensions with India. The South Asian neighbors have more than a million soldiers on a war footing along their border.

"It has nothing to do with anything, but to test the technical aspect of the missile," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said.

The Indian government said Pakistan gave advance notice and dismissed the test as a publicity stunt ahead of next week's general elections, the first in Pakistan since the military seized power in a 1999 coup.

India's domestically built Akash missile was fired over the Bay of Bengal from India's testing range at Chandipur, a coastal town in Orissa state.

"It was a routine test. We are testing different parameters of the missile since the past fortnight," said P. K. Bandhopadhyaya, a Defense Ministry spokesman. "The missile is meant for air defense. It will be used by the army and air force."

India's External Affairs Ministry had called a news briefing earlier Friday to say it was "not particularly impressed" with what it called "missile antics of Pakistan" after Pakistan test-fired a new surface-to-surface missile, capable of carrying a nuclear or conventional warhead to an estimated range of 380 miles.

Military analysts in Pakistan say the testing is part of a dangerous pattern between India and Pakistan.

"We are not doing anything new. But what is unfortunate is that both countries engage in this tit-for-tat actions," said retired Army Gen. Talat Masood. "As long as we both keep doing this it won't help to lower tensions in the region."

Missile development in South Asia has been a growing concern to the United States since both India and Pakistan conducted underground nuclear tests in 1998. Both say they have inducted nuclear weapons into their arsenals, but neither has specified the type or numbers of nuclear weapons.

"I don't think this will send any signal to India. It is not a new missile. It is just routine testing," said Shireen Mazari, director general of the government-run Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad.

Pakistan's arsenal includes both Ghauri and Shaheen missiles — all part of the Hatf series and all capable of carrying either a nuclear or conventional warhead.

The ballistic missiles in Pakistan's arsenal have ranges of up to 1,320 miles, capable of hitting any major target in India.

Pakistan conducted its last missile test in May in response to Indian tests in January.

Relations between Pakistan and India deteriorated after a December attack on the Indian Parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistani-based militants.

India deployed additional troops to the disputed Kashmir region and both countries put their soldiers on alert.

The United States, among other nations, scrambled to avert an all-out war between the two neighbors, who have fought three wars in the last 55 years.

Both Pakistan and India have said they want peace, but more than 1 million soldiers are deployed along the disputed Kashmir border, the flashpoint of two previous wars.

Both India and Pakistan claim the Himalayan region in its entirety. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants who are demanding an independent Kashmir or a Kashmir aligned to Pakistan.

Pakistan denies the charges, but says it sympathizes with the Kashmiris and demands a vote to allow the Kashmiris to decide their own future.

Also in Pakistan, Gunmen sprayed bullets at a girls' Islamic school in the eastern Punjab province Friday, and two men on a motorcycle hurled grenades at a Christian hospital in a remote corner of northwestern Pakistan.

A 12-year old girl was hurt when bullets shattered the windows of her Islamic school, where she was learning the Muslim holy book, The Quran.

Students screamed and ran for cover when the shooting began, according to witnesses.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

In remote Bannu, a rugged tribal region of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan, two youths hurled a hand grenade at a Christian missionary hospital. There were no injuries and the damage was reportedly slight.

There was no indication that the two attacks were linked.