January 24, 2017•Update: January 24, 2017
By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
Pakistan a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 2,200 kilometers (1,367 miles) on Tuesday, marking the second such test in less than three weeks, according to an army spokesman.
The missile named Ababeel is capable of carrying nuclear warheads and has the capability to engage multiple targets with high precision, spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said in a statement.
“The missile is capable of delivering multiple warheads, using multiple independent re-entry vehicle (MIRV) . The test flight was aimed at validating design and technical parameters of the weapon system,” the statement said.
The new weapon system was aimed at ensuring the deterrence of Pakistan’s ballistic missiles in the growing regional ballistic missile defense environment, it added.
President Mamnoon Hussein, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa congratulated the scientists involved and the armed forces for the "landmark achievement".
Islamabad, earlier this month, had test fired its first submarine-launched nuclear-capable cruise missile called Babur-3, which boasts a range of 450 kilometers (280 miles).
The recent missile tests rising tensions between the two nuclear rivals since India accused Pakistan of having links to gunmen who killed 19 soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir in September 2016.
Pakistan has denied the charge and accuses India of repressing pro-independence protests that started in the disputed Himalayan region in July 2016 when more than 100 Kashmiri civilians were killed allegedly by Indian forces and others were injured.
The two countries, locked in a perpetual 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.
India boasts the world’s third-largest army after the U.S. and China, with an active troop strength of over 1.3 million. Pakistan, meanwhile, stands eighth on the list with a 600,000-man army.
Pakistan and India are among a small handful countries with nuclear arsenals. India joined the nuclear club long before Pakistan, in 1974, prompting Islamabad to follow suit.
Pakistan silently developed its own nuclear capability in the 1980s, when it was an ally of the U.S. in the first Afghan war against the crumbling Soviet Union.
It did not conduct any nuclear tests, however, until India carried out a series of its own tests in 1999. Only three weeks later, Pakistan conducted six successful tests in the remote Chaghi district near the Afghanistan-Iran border, stoking fears of a nuclear war between the long-time rivals.
According to SIPRI, India currently possesses between 80 and 100 nuclear warheads, while Pakistan holds between 90 and 110.
A number of international think tanks, meanwhile, which blame China for assisting Pakistan’s nuclear program, believe the size of Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal will cross the 200-mark within the next five years.
