RAWALPINDI, Dec 9: A Strategic Missile Group (SMG) of the Pakistan Army’s Strategic Force Command (ASFC) on Saturday conducted a successful launch of short-range ballistic missile Hatf-III (Ghaznavi).

This was the third launch of a ballistic missile as part of training exercises of the ASFC. Two other SMGs had earlier conducted successful launches of Ghauri and Shaheen-1 ballistic missiles last month.

The launch came at the culmination phase of the training exercise, which validated the operational readiness of the SMG equipped with Ghaznavi missiles. The Ghaznavi ballistic missile system was handed over to the Army Strategic Force Command a few years ago. The Ghaznavi missile has a range of 290 kilometres.

The launch exercise was witnessed by Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed and a number of senior military officers, scientists and engineers of strategic organisations.