INDIA: India yesterday conducted its third missile test in less than two weeks, leading to neighbouring nuclear rival Pakistan accusing it of trying to provoke a missile race.
"India wants to provoke us in this missile race, but we will not be provoked," said Pakistan's information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in Islamabad.
Condemning the missile test by New Delhi - with which it came close to war on at least two occasions last year - Mr Rashid said Pakistan wanted the world to take notice of India's arms race.
India's Defence Research and Development Organisation officials said the surface-to-air (SAM) Akash (Sky) missile which uses solid rocket propellant, was successfully fired from a mobile launcher over the Bay of Bengal in eastern Orissa state.
"We are quite satisfied with the various tasks assigned to the system," a defence official said of the missile that was test-fired for the second time since Saturday.
Officials said this was the missile's final test before it was cleared for series production and inducted into the air force by the year-end.
Known as the local version of the American Patriot missile, the 650 kg Akash carries a 55 kg payload. Along with its locally developed phased-array surveillance radar that can simultaneously keep track of 64 aircraft within a 40-60 km range, the missile is capable of forcing all enemy planes to fly at tree-top level, considerably reducing their range and damage potential.
Earlier on January 9th, India had tested a new version of its nuclear-capable Agni (Fire) intermediate range ballistic missile capable of striking targets at a distance of around 700-800 km.
Military officials said the Agni was Pakistan-specific, developed to strike targets deep inside the neighbouring country.
Both poverty-ridden countries, who have fought three wars and an 11-week-long border conflict since independence in 1947, are locked in a tit-for-tat nuclear and missile arms race that is debilitating their overburdened economies.
An Indian soldier and two rebels were among five people killed yesterday in separate incidents of violence in Indian administered Kashmir. Militants had placed explosives inside a three-wheeler taxi which exploded close to an army vehicle.
