ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 4 (UPI) -- Pakistan test fired a nuclear-capable missile Friday, the second in a week.
President Pervez Musharraf, who witnessed the firing, insisted the test was not meant to send "political signals outside the country" but to validate technical parameters."
Musharraf, however, said the test should silence critics who accuse his government of capping Pakistan's nuclear program at Washington's behest.
The ballistic missile called Hatf V can carry nuclear warheads to a range of 930 miles (1,500 kilometers), the military said. It did not reveal the location or exact time of the test.
The intermediate Hatf V was also tested on May 29, just a week after a new government took charge in India. The test triggered protests in New Delhi and the new Indian government said Pakistan was provoking a nuclear arms race.
The Hatf V is part of a series of Ghauri missiles, based reportedly on North Korea's Nodong missile.
They were developed at Pakistan's premier nuclear facility, Khan Research Laboratories, which was founded and named after the disgraced architect of Pakistan's atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has admitted selling nuclear secrets.
