|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Pakistan: Military Deploys Missiles at Indian Border U.S. intelligence sources believe that Pakistan is building missile-launch sites near its border with India and has started moving missiles out of storage for deployment, the Washington Times reported today. The sites under construction were believed to be for short-range M-11s, also known as Hatf missiles, according to the Times. Intelligence sources saw a convoy of about 95 trucks at a missile-storage facility 100 miles south of Islamabad at Sargodha, and officials believe the trucks were moving missiles to northern Pakistan (see GSN, Jan. 2), the Times reported. Intelligence reports said Pakistan was getting ready to transport more M-11 missiles to northeastern areas from the south. Pakistan is building five new concrete missile-launch sites in the Eastern part of the country, and U.S. intelligence agencies have discovered the locations of three sites, according to the Times. Pakistan’s missile systems are “capable of striking a large number of targets throughout most of India,” said an intelligence report. Meanwhile, India has deployed 90 percent of its military in preparation for conflict with Pakistan (see GSN, Jan. 11). U.S. Reaction U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday asked Indian and Pakistani leaders to work to reduce tensions that heightened when a December attack on the Indian Parliament killed 14 people, including the suicide attackers. Bush also thanked Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for his speech Saturday in which he promised to fight terrorists and Islamist militants (see GSN, Jan. 8). Musharraf said Pakistan was closing down five Muslim extremist groups. The Bush administration did not consider a war on the subcontinent inevitable, partly due to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s visit to the region and Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes’ visit to the United States this week, according to the Times (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, Jan. 14). Capabilities Pakistan’s Hatf-1 (80-kilometer range, 500-kilogram payload), Hatf-2 (300-kilometer range, 500-kilogram payload) and Hatf-3/M-11 (600-kilometer range, 500-kilogram payload) missiles are operational, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Carnegie Endowment World Missile Chart, Jan. 14).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
