India, Pakistan test fire missiles

The Associated Press

NEW DELHI, India -- Tensions between India and Pakistan worsened Wednesday when each conducted tit-for-tat missile tests and New Delhi linked Islamabad to the massacre of 24 Hindus by unidentified gunmen.

Hours after India fired a short-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, Pakistan announced it had tested a similar missile. Each missile was capable of reaching cities in the other country.

Also, officials in Pakistan said troops along its border with India traded heavy artillery and mortar fire, killing one Pakistani civilian and wounding 14 others.

India successfully fired a Prithvi missile from its Chandipur testing range in eastern Orissa state. The missile has a range of 95 miles. Defense ministry spokesman Baljit Singh Menon said the test was routine.

Pakistan tested one of its Abdali missiles, which can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads and has a range of up to 132 miles. Aziz Ahmed Khan, spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, would not say where or at what time the missile test was conducted.

"Pakistan has also test-fired a missile today, but we informed India about it," Khan said.

He complained that India did not notify Pakistan in advance of its test.

"The common practice is for each country to inform the other before conducting a test, but this time we were surprised," Khan said.

Tensions have increased since Monday's massacre in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The victims, including two children and 11 women, were upper-caste Hindus known as Kashmiri Pandits. A group of armed men dragged them out of their homes in the village of Nadimarg and shot them at close range, police and witnesses said.

Police said they believed the gunmen were Islamic militants, who have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India since 1989. More than 61,000 people, mostly Kashmiri civilians, have been killed in the insurgency.

"The pattern, methodology and the nature of targets of these acts of terror are all too familiar and, therefore, the culpability of Pakistan is all too clear," said Navtej Sarna, a spokesman for India's foreign ministry.

New Delhi long has accused Pakistan of supporting the Islamic militants. Pakistan insists it does not provide funding or weapons.

The two countries came to the brink of war after similar attacks a year ago. Both sides rushed hundreds of thousands of troops to their shared border, raising fear of a nuclear exchange, before international mediation defused the conflict.

The countries have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.

India's latest test was one of scores carried out by its Defense Research and Development Organization to perfect the capability of the missile to carry a nuclear warhead. They have conducted 16 trials of the army version of the Prithvi, which first was test-fired in February 1988.

Sarna took an indirect swipe at the United States and its war on terrorism, in which Pakistan is a key ally.

"The global war against terrorism can only be won when it is pursued without double standards and terrorism is eradicated wherever it exists," he said.

"The combat against international terrorism is ill-served if threats in some cases are met with military means and in others with calls for restraint and dialogue."

Washington repeatedly has called on India and Pakistan to resume dialogue and was instrumental in getting the two to pull back from the brink of war last year.

The two countries shocked the world with dual underground nuclear tests in 1998, each earning international sanctions for their actions. They continue to build their missile capabilities with routine test firings.