India, Pakistan test-fire missiles

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Against a backdrop of renewed tension between India and Pakistan over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, Pakistan Friday test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Hours later, India test-fired a missile of its own.

Both countries described the tests as routine and unrelated. But the back-to-back launches added to fears that the two nuclear-armed neighbors could be edging toward confrontation barely three months after a U.S. and British diplomatic blitz that pushed them back from the brink of war.

Pakistan's firing of a medium-range Shaheen-1 missile was the first such test since tensions between the countries peaked in May over a series of attacks on Indian targets by Islamic militants based in Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of troops from both countries remain massed along their common border.

Pakistani officials said that India -- as well as "friendly countries," including the United States -- were notified of the test-firing several days in advance.

India's Foreign Ministry dismissed the test as a political gesture timed to influence Oct. 10 parliamentary elections that the military government of President Pervez Musharraf describes as a major step toward restoring democracy in Pakistan.

A few hours after the Pakistani test, India announced that it had tested a surface-to-air Akash missile as part of a series of launches conducted over several weeks.

Analysts and diplomats saw another purpose behind the tests. "They wanted to send a message to India," Talat Masood, a retired general and columnist here, said of the Pakistani launch. India "has been rather belligerent in the last two weeks, so it's a counterweight," he said. "I think this was a signal to India not to be very aggressive or belligerent and that we are fully prepared to take you on."

In Washington, the State Department was critical of both countries and called on them to "take steps to restrain their nuclear weapons and missile programs ... and to begin dialogue on confidence-building measures which would reduce the likelihood that such weapons would ever be used."

"We are disappointed that ballistic missile tests occurred in the region," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "There is a charged atmosphere in the region. Tests can contribute to that atmosphere and make it harder to prevent a destabilizing nuclear and missile arms race."

The military standoff dates to December, when India rushed its forces to the border after an attack on its Parliament complex by Islamic militants that it says were trained and armed by Pakistan. Pakistan then deployed its troops to the border. Tensions escalated in May, when a guerrilla attack claimed the lives of 31 people in an Indian army housing complex in Kashmir.

Indian threats to attack Pakistan prompted fears of the world's first nuclear exchange. In late May, when tensions were at their highest, Pakistan initiated what it described as routine missile tests. India dismissed the tests as "missile antics" intended for domestic consumption, although foreign diplomats said later that New Delhi had been deeply concerned.

Shortly afterward, the threat of war seemed to diminish when Musharraf pledged -- in a meeting here with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage -- to "permanently" end infiltrations by militants across the Line of Control, a cease-fire line that divides Indian and Pakistani forces in Kashmir.

Indian officials acknowledge that the infiltrations dropped in June and July. More recently, however, they have accused Musharraf of allowing the incursions to resume in order to disrupt state elections in Indian-held Kashmir that began last month. Militants have warned voters to stay home and killed scores of political workers, including several candidates, since campaigns began in August.

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