Pakistan test fires 'enhanced version' of cruise missile

KARACHI, Pakistan

Pakistan on Tuesday said it has "successfully" test fired a version of its indigenously developed Babur cruise missile 1B with enhanced range.

The missile -- named after Zahiruddin Mohammad Babur, the founder of Mughal dynasty in India -- has an original range of 700 kilometers (435 miles), though the range of the enhanced version was not disclosed in a statement issued by the media wing of Pakistan's army.

The ordinance is capable of striking both land and sea targets with "high accuracy," the statement said.

This comes days after longtime rival India tested its own next-generation nuclear-capable ballistic missile, Agni-P.

Addressing the launch ceremony, Lt. Gen. Nadeem Zaki Manj, who heads the Pakistani army's Strategic Plans Division, said the test would further strengthen Pakistan's "strategic deterrence."

President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and three services chiefs also congratulated the scientists and engineers on conduct of "successful launch."

The two arch-rivals, locked in a decades-long arms race, have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over the disputed Kashmir valley.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.