Pakistan on Saturday tested a missile capable of delivering nuclear warheads to India’s major cities within minutes — prompting appeals for restraint from President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the final day of their summit — then followed up with a test-firing of a short-range ballistic missile Sunday.
Pakistani television broadcast footage Saturday of the medium-range, surface-to-surface Ghauri missile lifting off from its launch pad as military officers looked on, in the first of what Pakistan has said would be a series of missile tests.
Also Saturday, Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged mortar and small arms fire across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, killing at least three suspected Islamic militants and two Indian soldiers, an Indian army spokesman said.
India and Pakistan tried to play down the significance of Saturday’s missile test, with Pakistan describing it as “routine” and India accusing Pakistan of staging the test for the “domestic audience in Pakistan.”
“We didn’t take it too seriously,” said Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is vacationing in northwestern India.
But the back-to-back tests sent a clear message to India and the world about Pakistan’s ability to counter the threat of an Indian attack with lethal force.
Although its conventional forces are heavily outnumbered by those of its larger neighbor, Pakistan has always reserved the right to use nuclear weapons if it is attacked. The timing of the tests deepened international alarm about the possibility of war.
The Ghauri missile fired Saturday, with a range of 930 miles, was developed in collaboration with North Korea and could reach targets across two-thirds of India, including Bombay and Delhi. India also has developed missiles capable of reaching all of Pakistan, and carried out its last test-fire in January.
One day after putting their signatures to a treaty that will slash their own nuclear arsenals by two-thirds, Bush and Putin promised to work together to avert a war between the world’s two newest nuclear nations.
In St. Petersburg, Russia, where they spent the day sightseeing, the two leaders said they were deeply concerned by the war talk from New Delhi and Islamabad.
Bush urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to make good on his promises to curb the actions of militants, blamed by India for carrying out terrorist attacks in Indian territory.
“We are deeply concerned about the rhetoric,” Bush said. “It’s very important for President Musharraf to do what he said he was going to do in his speech, and that is to stop the incursions across the border.”
Putin invited Musharraf and Vajpayee to talk during the meeting of the Council on Cooperation and Confidence Measures in Asia, scheduled to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, June 3-5. As members of the council, India and Pakistan are expected to attend, but there was no indication that they would agree to a face-to-face meeting.
“This testing while there is all this tension really aggravates the situation,” Putin told reporters.
Under diplomatic pressure, India has cooled its rhetoric over the past two days, indicating that it is prepared to give Musharraf time to fulfill his promises to curtail the militant groups.
Now, Pakistan is adopting a more belligerent stance by staging the missile tests and publicly launching civil defense preparations for war.
Behind the scenes, however, Musharraf has told those around him that he is planning further steps to crack down on the extremist organizations blamed by India for the attacks, according to politicians who met with him last week.
In January, during the last escalation of tensions between the two nations, Musharraf made a speech to the nation in which he promised to prevent terrorists from launching attacks on Kashmir from Pakistani territory. India says he has not done enough to keep that promise.
State television said Saturday that Musharraf will deliver an address to the nation Monday.
