- (AFP) - India tested a short range nuclear capable missile
off the east coast, a defence official said, just weeks after talks with
Pakistan on reducing the risk of atomic confrontation.
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- The homegrown Agni surface-to-surface missile, with a
strike range of 700 kilometres (about 435 miles), was fired from a mobile
launcher at Wheeler Island off eastern Orissa state, the official said.
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- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated defence scientists
for the test and said it was not a threat to any country but a step in
India's quest to become self-reliant.
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- "The test should not be viewed as a threat to any
country. Absolutely not... it marks yet another step forward in India's
efforts to achieve self-reliance in high technology defence capabilities,"
Singh told reporters.
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- Pakistan said it was not worried about the missile test
as it was a "sovereign right" for any country to enhance its
military capability.
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- During their June 19-20 talks in New Delhi, India and
Pakistan agreed to set up a hotline to prevent nuclear confrontation, continue
a ban on nuclear tests and conclude an agreement on informing each other
in advance of missile tests.
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- The 12 metre (39 foot) high missile fired Sunday, one
of the variants of the Agni series, can carry a one-tonne payload. It is
powered by solid fuel which enables it to travel at 2.5 kilometres (1.5
miles) per second.
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- It can be fired from both rail-based and road-mobile
missile launchers.
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- "This provides the missile with greater operational
flexibility," the defence official said.
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- The missile was first tested on January 25, 2002 and
again on January 9, 2003 from the same launch site.
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- Early last month, Pakistan successfully test a ballistic
missile, Hatf V, which has a range of 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). The
missile could carry nuclear warheads deep inside India.
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- "Both countries (Pakistan and India) do the tests.
It is a sovereign right of a country to take any measure for its defence,"
chairman of Pakistan's senate foreign relations committee Mushahid Hussain
told AFP.
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- "We reserve the sovereign right to improve our defence
capability and same right be granted to other countries," Hussain
said.
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- "We do not take exception to that, any other country
can do it also."
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- Days ago media reports in Pakistan quoted President Pervez
Musharraf as saying Islamabad would conduct an "important" missile
test in two months' time.
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- Musharraf did not disclose details of the test but said
domestic critics who believed Pakistan had decided to roll back its nuclear
and missile programmes were living in a "fool's paradise", the
Dawn newspaper said Thursday.
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- Indian security analyst C. Uday Bhaskar said the two
countries' tests were part of efforts to achieve "operational credibility"
in relation to their missile programmes.
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- "A rough thumb rule is ... to conduct 25 to 40 tests
before a particular missile is operationally proven and becomes part of
the inventory," he said describing the tests as routine with more
to follow.
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- Washington on Thursday expressed concern over Pakistan's
move to conduct a key missile test saying it would revive dangers posed
by nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as well as of an arms race in
South Asia.
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- Uday Bhaskar however dismissed such apprehensions saying
that as India and Pakistan engaged in nuclear confidence building measures,
both sides also wanted to have a "comprehensive" inventory of
missiles.
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- "We know what we are doing ... (so) a missile test
should not generate that kind of anxiety anywhere," he said.
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