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Pakistan tests Ghauri missile; tension mounts

Pakistan test fired a medium-range missile on Saturday capable of dropping nuclear warheads on the main cities of rival India in what some analysts saw as a defiant gesture likely to stoke tensions.

Pakistani President and military leader General Pervez Musharraf said the test, on the anniversary of the birth of Islam's Prophet Mohammad, was successful.

"On this auspicious day I want to give you auspicious news," he told Islamic scholars. "I want to convey to the entire nation and to you that today...we tested our indigenous Ghauri missile with a range of 1500 km.

"It reached its target with great accuracy and great success," he said before chanting "God is great" three times.

"We don't want war, but we are not afraid of war," he added.

The test of the Pakistani-developed surface-to-surface Ghauri, or Hatf-V, is the first of a series lasting until Tuesday that Pakistan says is routine and unrelated to what the United States has called a very dangerous confrontation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

But it comes at a time of heightened tension and a military standoff between the South Asian rivals over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir that have raised fears of war.

Vajpayee takes a break

In India, where Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is resting in the Himalayan foothills, the response was muted.

A foreign ministry spokeswoman said India had nothing to add to comments made on Friday, in which its said: "The government of India is not particularly impressed by these missile antics, clearly targeted at the domestic audience in Pakistan."

Indian analyst Bharat Karnad told Star News television the test, carried out in the face of US calls for restraint, was a gesture of defiance against India which heavily outguns Pakistan in both conventional and nuclear weapons.

"I think that they wanted to show their resolve in resisting India in case New Delhi had in mind to mount some action," he said. "But I think the more likely result is going to be that they have depleted their missile stock."

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Muslim-majority Kashmir and the possibility of another has set off alarm bells around the world.

Both sides have massed a million men along their border, backed by missile batteries, tanks and fighter planes, since a deadly raid on India's Parliament in December by Pakistan-based militants. Tension rose sharply after a bloody May 14 raid on an Indian army camp in Kashmir.

World governments swung into action after Vajpayee told his front-line troops to prepare for a decisive battle in the wake of the latest attack, prompting a flurry of phone calls from Washington and a string of visits by envoys from the European Union, Britain and the United States.

But war fears appeared to ease after Vajpayee said on Thursday he saw clear skies ahead rather than war clouds and, although he warned lightning could strike any time, left the capital on Friday for a break due to last until Wednesday.

His comments and his holiday cheered financial markets which read them as signalling an easing of tension.

Kashmir clashes

But overnight, Pakistani and Indian forces exchanged some of their heaviest artillery and mortar fire in recent days across a ceasefire line dividing Kashmir, India said.

The two sides have been trading regular heavy fire across the Kashmir frontier for more than a week and dozens of civilians and soldiers on both sides have been killed and wounded. Thousands of civilians have fled front-line villages on both sides.

The State Department urged Americans to put off travel to the region and said US citizens there should consider leaving.

"Tensions between India and Pakistan have risen to serious levels, and the risk of intensified military hostilities cannot be ruled out," it said in a statement.

Europe said India was running out of patience because of Pakistan's alleged support for a separatist insurgency in India's part of Kashmir.

Before Saturday's test, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Washington was disappointed with Pakistan's plan and urged restraint on both sides.

"We continue to urge both sides to take steps to restrain their missile programmes and their nuclear weapons programmes, including that there be no operational deployment of nuclear-armed ballistic missiles," he told reporters.

European Union External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten, the first of a string of top level envoys visiting the subcontinent in the latest international peace push, said in New Delhi on Friday the situation was on a "knife edge".

Reuters

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