Pakistan Begins ‘Routine’ Missile Tests

Tensions between India and Pakistan rose another notch, with Pakistan today launching the first in a weekend series of test missiles and the release of a letter Friday from India’s prime minister to President Bush saying his nation was running out of patience.

India and Pakistan routinely test their missiles and notify each other according to an agreement designed to avoid misunderstandings.

“We have notified neighboring countries, including India, about these tests,” Pakistani Information Secretary Anwar Mahmood said Friday in Islamabad. “We have also informed India that these tests have nothing to do with the current situation.”

In New Delhi, Indian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao also said the tests are “routine and not central to the current situation.”

Launch of the medium-range missile today “demonstrated Pakistan’s determination to defend itself, strengthen national security and consolidate strategic balance in the region,” a statement released by the military said.

Indian officials said the government in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, had said that the tests would involve short- and medium-range missiles and would run today through Monday.

Aggressive rhetoric has increased recently between the nations, locked in a standoff over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between them. Two of their three wars have been fought over the area.

Indian and Pakistani forces traded heavy fire overnight in Kashmir. The nuclear-armed neighbors had exchanged deadly shelling and threats of war Thursday, with New Delhi calling for a “decisive victory against the enemy” and Islamabad warning of retaliation.

Rao said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee wrote this week to Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin stressing that India was losing patience.

“The prime minister has said that India has exercised restraint in the face of grave provocations from the Pakistani side and also taking into account requests by the international community that we should exercise patience, but we see no change in Pakistan’s attitude,” Rao said of the letter.

Tension escalated last week after suspected Pakistan-based militants raided an army camp in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, killing 34 people.