Pakistan 'successfully' tests Ghaznavi ballistic missile

Pakistan has "successfully" carried out a night training launch of 290-km range surface-to-surface ballistic missile Ghaznavi, its military said on Thursday.

The test comes amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan after New Delhi revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union territories.

"Pakistan successfully carried out night training launch of the surface to surface ballistic missile Ghaznavi, capable of delivering multiple types of warheads upto 290 KMs," Director-General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted.

Pakistan President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated the nation and conveyed their appreciation to the team that conducted the test, he said.

He also said the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Service chiefs congratulated the team.

Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a US-based NGO, has said that Ghaznavi was developed after studying Chinese M-11 missiles, which were delivered to Pakistan in 1987.

Pakistan has been rattled by India's move to strip the special status accorded to J and K and has found itself completely isolated despite desperate attempts by it aimed at internationalising the issue.

India has said the decision to scrap Article 370 was its internal matter.

Since New Delhi's landmark decision, Pakistan has ramped up its anti-India rhetoric. Despite focussing on the dwindling economy and terrorism emanating from its soil, Islamabad has been crying hoarse over Kashmir and has also gone to the extent of threatening war.

Its Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed yesterday warned that a full-blown war between India and Pakistan may occur in "October or the next month".

Addressing media in Rawalpindi, Rashid claimed that a "decisive time for Kashmir's struggle' has come. "This is going to be the last war between the two countries," he was quoted as saying by Pakistan Today.

After India's move, Pakistan beefed-up of its troop presence along the Line of Control and said it will consider all steps to counter what it described "illegal steps".

It also downgraded bilateral ties with India and halted train and bus services between them.

According to sources in New Delhi, inputs have been received that Pakistani commandos were likely to infiltrate through the sea route to create a communal disturbance or terrorist attack in Gujarat.