Pakistan successfully test fired on Monday a nuclear-capable, short-range, surface-to-surface ballistic missile.

Pakistan successfully test fired on Monday a nuclear-capable, short-range, surface-to-surface ballistic missile, the military stated.

The Hatf-2 ballistic missile can travel up to 180 km, an army statement said.

“Hatf-2 carries nuclear as well as conventional warheads with high accuracy,” the statement from the Inter-Service Public Relations read.

The test is part of the process of validation of land based ballistic missile system, it said.

“The test provides an operational level capability to Pakistan’s strategic forces, additional to the strategic and technical level capability with Pakistan already posses,” the military added.

The test experiment was attended by director general Strategic Planning Division, Lt. Gen. (retd) Khalid Kidwai and Commander of Strategic Force Command Lt Gen Tariq Nadeem Gilani.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani congratulated the army and its engineers and all team involved in the missile system on the successful test of the ballistic missile.

The statement did not identify the test location.

Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in May 1998 several days after similar tests by its rival India.