Pakistan tests ballistic missile Ghaznavi: ISPR

Islamabad

Pakistan on Thursday conducted a successful training launch of surface to surface ballistic missile (SSBM) Ghaznavi, a press release from InterServices Public Relations (ISPR).

According to the press release, this launch was carried out as part of a training exercise of Army Strategic Forces Command “aimed at rehearsing operational readiness procedures during day and night.” Director General Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant General Nadeem Zaki Manj appreciated the operational preparedness of the Army Strategic Forces Command. He commended them for displaying a very high standard of proficiency in handling and operating the weapon system.

“Troops displayed full confidence in the robust strategic command and control system,” said Director General Strategic Plans Division, was quoted as saying by ISPR.

The president, prime minister, chairman joint chiefs of staff committee and services chiefs have congratulated the nation on this landmark achievement. As per the military’s media wing, missile Ghaznavi is capable of delivering multiple types of warheads up to a range of 290 kilometres. In November 2019, Pakistan carried out a successful training launch of ballistic missile Shaheen-I which was also an SSBM.

Pakistan's army on Thursday said it had successfully tested a ballistic missile Ghaznavi amid heightened tensions with arch-rival India. Named after the 11thcentury Afghan king, the missile is capable of delivering multiple types of warheads up to a range of 290 kilometers, according to a statement from the army's media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

This was part of a military drill aimed at training the troops for combat, it added.

President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and the three services chiefs "congratulated the nation on this landmark achievement," the statement concluded. The fresh flare-up in already heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals was sparked by New Delhi’s scrapping of the longstanding special rights of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in August last year.

India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistan who have attacked two wars over Kashmir.