India and Pakistan in tit-for-tat missile tests

INDIA test-fired a short-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon yesterday, and neighbour Pakistan immediately announced it had tested a similar missile.

The nuclear-armed rivals often conduct such tit-for-tat tests of missiles capable of reaching parts of the other’s territory.

The launches came as India repeated assertions that Pakistan was to blame for the recent massacre of 24 Hindus in Kashmir, the Himalayan province claimed by both South Asian rivals.

With the United States and the international community consumed by the war in Iraq, there are fears the nuclear rivals might carry out provocations so as to keep the world’s attention on their dispute over Kashmir.

Pakistan complained India didn’t notify it in advance of its test.

“The common practice is for each country to inform the other before conducting a test, but this time we were surprised,” said Aziz Ahmed Khan, Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman.

India successfully fired a Prithvi missile from its Chandipur testing range in Orissa state. The missile has a range of 95 miles. Baljit Singh Menon, a defence ministry spokesman, said the test was routine.

Pakistan tested one of its Abdali missiles, which can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads and has a range of less than 132 miles. Khan would not say where the missile test was conducted, or whether it occurred before or after the Indian test.

“Pakistan has also test-fired a missile today, but we informed India about it,” Khan said.

Tensions have increased since the massacre last Monday in the village of Nadimarg. The victims, which included two children and 11 women, were upper-caste Hindus known as Kashmiri Pandits. A group of armed men dragged them out of their homes and shot them at close range, police and witnesses said.

Police said they believed the gunmen were Islamic militants, who have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India since 1989.

“The pattern, methodology and the nature of targets of these acts of terror are all too familiar and therefore the culpability of Pakistan is all too clear,” said Navtej Sarna, a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry.

New Delhi has long accused Pakistan of supporting the Islamic militants. Pakistan insists it does not provide funding or weapons.

The two countries came to the brink of war after similar attacks a year ago. Both sides rushed hundreds of thousands of troops to their border, raising fear of a nuclear exchange, before international mediation defused the conflict.

More than 61,000 people, mostly Kashmiri civilians, have been killed in the insurgency. The countries have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.

India’s latest test was one of scores carried out by its Defence Research and Development Organisation to perfect the capability of the missile to carry a nuclear warhead. They have conducted 16 trials of the army version of the Prithvi, which was first test-fired in February 1988.