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Pakistan test-fires 2nd nuclear-capable ballistic missile

This handout image released by Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) office on January 9, 2017, shows a Pakistani nuclear-capable cruise missile after being launched from a submarine during a test-firing at an undisclosed location in Pakistan. (Via AFP)

Pakistan has successfully test-fired a new surface-to-surface ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads with a range of more than 2,000 kilometers.

The Pakistani army said on Tuesday that the Ababeel missile can carry nuclear warheads up to a distance of 2,200 kilometers.

The missile can evade enemy radar and deliver multiple precisely targeted warheads, it added.

The military, in a statement, said the latest test was a way of "enforcing deterrence" against arch-rival India.

"Development of (the) Ababeel Weapon System is aimed at ensuring survivability of Pakistan's ballistic missiles in the growing regional Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) environment," the statement said.

The test follows the firing of Pakistan's first submarine-launched cruise missile on January 9. The Babur-3 cruise missile, which has a range of 450 kilometers, had been fired from an underwater mobile platform in an undisclosed location in the Indian Ocean and "hit its target with precise accuracy."

The latest missile tests are expected to fuel already heightened tensions between neighbors Pakistan and India.

Last year, Pakistani officials expressed serious concern about India's anti-ballistic missile testing with Sartaj Aziz, the adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on national security and foreign affairs, telling the upper house of parliament that it could lead to the "nuclearization" of the Indian Ocean.

Pakistan and India have routinely tested ballistic missiles since they first became nuclear capable respectively in 1998 and 1974.

Neither of the neighbors has signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or other international regulatory pacts that restrict developing or testing nuclear weapons.

India considers the NPT as discriminatory, while Pakistan has indicated that it will not join the international treaty until its neighbor does.


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