The image shows a successful test fire of a missile by Pakistan. — Photo by Online/File
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan on Wednesday conducted a successful launch of intermediate range ballistic missile Hatf-IV (Shaheen-1).
The missile incorporates a series of improvements in range and technical parameters of the existing warhead and is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads to a range of 900 kilometres, the Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement.
Wednesday’s launch, with its impact point at sea, was witnessed by Director General Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant General (retd) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, Chairman Nescom Muhammad Irfan Burney and other senior military officers, scientists and engineers
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Comments (64) Closed
Usman
Apr 10, 2013 05:44am
Funny when country is facing toughest economic crunch it has ever seen since its existence, there is no lack of defence spending. Its not difficult to interpret the mindset of stakeholders in Pakistan.
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Ghulam Hussain
Apr 10, 2013 05:53am
Great
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Ahmed
Apr 10, 2013 06:00am
mashaALLAH subhan ALLAH ALHUMDOLILAH
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Funa
Apr 10, 2013 06:30am
Feed your people who are dying of abject poverty....
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Maryam
Apr 10, 2013 06:50am
Please invest a bit in power sector as well, I need electricity for my work rather than missiles.
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malik
Apr 10, 2013 06:57am
Yea it does not matter if people have no electric or water or gas. This testing should go on to save us from uhhhh what?
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Ali Jamal
Apr 10, 2013 07:05am
Pakistan Zinda Abad
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The Hindu
Apr 10, 2013 07:09am
Congratulations..
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Nazir K Ali
Apr 10, 2013 07:27am
When will we CIVILIANS be invited to witness a launch? When will we honest and law-abiding CIVILIANS be given a real time (overview) briefing of the missile's capabilities? Nevertheless, congratulations. Salams
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Mir Dost Brohi
Apr 10, 2013 07:41am
A Humble Request from Bangkok
Instead of Testing Missile our Beloved Should Allocate on Poverty Reduction, Promotion of Education, Health and Image Development of Country. Now Even We Can not get Visa for Indonesia because we are Pakistan.
Don't waste Nations Money our Beloved Army.
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murtazarzai
Apr 10, 2013 07:54am
only 900km ? ;)
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murtazarzai
Apr 10, 2013 07:57am
country is becoming nuclear super power and you still crying for electricity.think big ;)
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mumtaz
Apr 10, 2013 08:08am
Congratulation to All Pakistani, with regards of CIVILIANS be invited to witness a launch, it cannot be possible.
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saleet
Apr 10, 2013 08:24am
Army is doing its work no matter wat other departments are doing. It is doing wat it bounds to do under defence budget. Better blame the rulers if they can invest 40 bn on roads or even worst trillions of curruptions rather then power.
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Abdur Razzaque
Apr 10, 2013 09:12am
Congratulations! Now it is the time for another test that is ahead in front of the nation. It is the test for democracy, test for the establishment of the Islamic ideology. Insha-allah, the Pakistani nation will be able to acquire it!
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Maryam
Apr 10, 2013 09:40am
Thank you for enlightning me. :P
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solitarreaper@yahoo.com
Apr 10, 2013 09:43am
O, Pakistan come to your senses! Think seriously about wasting your precious means mercilessly; destroying itself, cheating its poor masses making them destined to suffer from the miseries of life. Making progress by leaps and bounds against the destruction of humans!
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Saad
Apr 10, 2013 10:46am
Long live pakistan and its armed forces <3
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Muslim
Apr 10, 2013 10:56am
It will be more funny when you will be blaming this defence for not saving the country from neighbors. You should give army the credit for doing exceptional developments in the limited defence budget. If there is economic problems then its the government that should be held accountable for matchless corruption!
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Maryam
Apr 10, 2013 11:00am
I hope its a satire, right?
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Md Imran
Apr 10, 2013 11:00am
AoA! Nobody can deny our right to exist as a superpower
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mir ibrahim
Apr 10, 2013 11:09am
very right , Maryam
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UMER ZIA
Apr 10, 2013 11:10am
Congratulations Pakistan and Pakistan Army.. Love U
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Khayyam
Apr 10, 2013 11:28am
country tested atomic bomb in 1998 but the problems still exist, in fact growing day by day. you think there is use of more and more missiles?
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sajjad
Apr 10, 2013 11:43am
Love this right wing sarcasm :)
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APC
Apr 10, 2013 11:43am
Don't forget your enemy in the east. Keep making more and more missiles and bombs, like North Korea.
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Raj
Apr 10, 2013 12:14pm
It is a pity that they painted the missile red. Choice of green color would have been better.
BTW, did it strike the target?
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ZaidMirza
Apr 10, 2013 12:18pm
We understand we are going through economic crises but does not mean we stop R&D in defense system. When a man is going through tough financial crises he does not stop educating his children or take them out once for a nice meal. Congratulations Pakistan, Allahu Akbar.
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Karamba
Apr 10, 2013 12:20pm
A remarkable achievement which few countries can boast about. However at the cost of sounding unpatriotic it has come at a price. Significant budget allocations, no transparency and no accountability. All this from civilians hard earned money and the only return for it is our own self destruction. Boys with toys. Majority here dont even know the effect of a nuclear holocaust and I am uncertain where the nuclear waste is going.So many questions and no answers. Ignorance is bliss until it comes back to bite us, then people start asking why, when and what but then it is too late.
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Naeem
Apr 10, 2013 12:20pm
I do not understand this criticism.. What wrong with a test? There are teams of engineers and people employed since years to bring about improvements and they are just doing their work...
Should they stop working until there is no more loadshedding throughout country?
Should those people be laid off and they head overseas, causing us more loss of skilled manpower?
A case could be made that this is about 'misplaced priorities' but this program has been running for atleast few decades and it was a priority in its time...
Trust me these guys at NESCOM have seen their due share of budget cuts, they are still delivering and you want to hold it against them? I would rather they continue and the industry needs to come up and benefit from some of the technology spin-offs or hire these facilites to solve their problems, our industry never believe in indigenous R&D.
This criticism is not fair.
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Manzoor H. Khatana, Ph.D.
Apr 10, 2013 12:42pm
Accuracy and range must continue to be strengthened. The world should know that all these missles are defensive in nature, Pakistan has no ill-design on its neighbors, it simply fears its eastern neighbor.
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Rao
Apr 10, 2013 12:48pm
Is there a missile research centre in Pakistan......I thought all research centres of Pakistan are either in China / North Korea
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Jim Stone
Apr 10, 2013 12:55pm
900 KM is not much of an offensive weapon, but for defense it would do quite well. It would seriously complicate any mission launched from an aircraft carrier. The key to making such a missile useful would be to have them be cheap enough to make tens of thousands of them. I would not consider this missile to be serious unless it could be made very cheaply, if it was expensive, it would only be useful as a nuclear deterrent and that is something that already exists well enough.
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hell
Apr 10, 2013 12:57pm
made in china
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maximuswarrior
Apr 10, 2013 01:29pm
Security and economic prosperity go hand in hand. Pakistan cannot afford to compromise on both. Pakistan is surrounded by internal and external hostility.
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SP
Apr 10, 2013 01:32pm
Superpower...Really?
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Abid
Apr 10, 2013 02:09pm
Please read the history in detail, as to why was this country created. You will certainly get the answer to your questions.
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imtiaz Faruqui
Apr 10, 2013 03:41pm
Islamic ideology can only work in oil rich countries, where people get rich without working, in poor states poor gets poorer.
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Lindi-a
Apr 10, 2013 03:46pm
Come test us and we will show you where they are made.
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Ogre
Apr 10, 2013 03:51pm
SM3 Fleet Ballistic Defense Missile - No worries. US Navy could shoot these down from 200 miles away.
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sfomann
Apr 10, 2013 04:07pm
A typical ignorant Indian mentality. i.e. all the high skilled R&D happening in India and everyone else is incompetent.
Do I need to mention that most of the Indian technology is based on Russian designs and in recent years, American assitance
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noor baloch
Apr 10, 2013 04:32pm
To Rao and Raj who are skeptical of our R/D and the missile program,could you say about urs program purely developed with russian help,and u call it indigenous.
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Balaji
Apr 10, 2013 06:16pm
India wishes well to Pakistan and its people... All the best in your endeavors. The money spent on missiles and R&D is way better than spending it on training militants to send them over to other countries ....
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Poor Taxpayer
Apr 10, 2013 06:28pm
Well, missile tests are fine as long as they are not at the cost of taxpayer's money.
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Ghumman
Apr 10, 2013 06:45pm
Could tell me name of country who invite civilians on missile test cermony??
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Gautham
Apr 10, 2013 09:48pm
Amazing! North Korea is the bad guy now? Isn't it, the N. Koreans who bartered the missile technology with Pakistan for nuclear know-how?
It is a strange irony you have quoted N Korea as a threat to rest of the neighbors in the region. I hope you do realize that the nuclear threat N Koreans are brandishing today is because of Pakistan's meherbaani.
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gbaja
Apr 10, 2013 11:19pm
Dear Muslim you made me laugh, What happened when people are being taken out by drones every single day. What happened when 2 choppers flew into your own backyard and took osama out. This is part of the so called 'defense'. Government does not acknowledge them. They just mislead people like you saying that the big enemy is in the east.
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KP
Apr 11, 2013 12:45am
The target was decided after the successful missile was launched
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Daniel
Apr 11, 2013 04:09am
When the missile was imported from china, it was red in colour. Great work by pak scientist in painting them white.....but, hey... wait... painting not done properly, some red is still visible.
He he ... just joking..
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Devil
Apr 11, 2013 04:38am
Nuclear ? with 900 KM Range ? You must be kidding ?
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A well wisher
Apr 11, 2013 06:41am
Hello Mr. Abid,
May be he has already read the history but the questions still looms large in his head.
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Pakistani
Apr 11, 2013 07:10am
It is so good to know that our neighbour is so well informed!! No wonder we have always been able to counter our numerical disadvantage.
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Pakistani
Apr 11, 2013 07:33am
Hilarious. This is rich coming from a nation whose film industry is dependant on Hollywood! Go and fix yourself up first before pointing fingers at others.
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Pakistani
Apr 11, 2013 09:25am
Well said
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murtazarzai
Apr 11, 2013 10:57am
really?
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Seedoo
Apr 11, 2013 12:52pm
How many missile tests a country conducts is directly proportional to the degree to which it has become a banana republic. North Korea for example.
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abubaqar
Apr 11, 2013 02:36pm
seedo, under your classification what does that make america,russia and china? banana republics of who?
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Rao
Apr 11, 2013 03:52pm
If we develop something with Russia, we are open about it. BrahMos missile is jointly developed by Russians & Indians...You can google and read about it in internet.
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SP
Apr 11, 2013 05:32pm
with strategic depth i assume?
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SP
Apr 11, 2013 05:36pm
Your comment is even more hilarious.
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Datz
Apr 11, 2013 06:02pm
Fear is not the word I would use, regarding our Eastern Neighbor, but lack of trust. We do not trust them, as India has attacked Pakistan 3 or 4 times in the past, without any provocation.
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Lee Yuon
Apr 11, 2013 06:18pm
The way things are going for Pakistan, Seems like only the Armed Forces will live long, ordinary citizens will starve to death.
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Ahmed Sultan (India)
Apr 11, 2013 06:37pm
just 900 km??
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Tamilselvan
Apr 12, 2013 02:36am
Need to worry about the internal security more than anything else.
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