Pakistan tests nuclear capable missile

Pakistan on Tuesday successfully testfired a short range nuclear capable missile, the military said.

The indigenously developed Short Range Surface to Surface Multi Tube Missile Hatf IX (NASR), with a range of 60 km, can carry nuclear warheads of appropriate yield, with high accuracy, and possesses shoot and scoot attributes, an army statement said.

This quick response system addresses the need to deter evolving threats, specially at shorter ranges, it said.

"The successful test has also been warmly appreciated by the president, prime minister of Pakistan and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, who have congratulated scientists and engineers on their outstanding success," the statement said.

Pakistan, which carried out nuclear tests in 1998, has developed several series of nuclear capable missiles and routinely conducts tests.

Director General of the Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant General Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, terming the NASR missile as a weapon of peace, said that the test was a major development which will consolidate Pakistan's deterrence capability at all levels of the threat spectrum, thereby ensuring peace in the region.

Senior officials who witnessed the test included Chairman of the National Engineering and Scientific Commission Irfan Burney, and Commander of the Army Strategic Forces Command Lieutenant General Tariq Nadeem Gilani, as well as senior officers from the Strategic forces and scientists and engineers of strategic organizations.