ISLAMABAD, May 28 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

ISLAMABAD, May 28 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE INFO)

Pakistan favorably test-fired its short-range Abdali missile Tuesday -- the third and final ordeal in a series that began last weekend amid an escalation of tension with neighboring India, Pakistan Television reported.

The test-firing of the Abdali missile, which has a range of up to 180 kilometers, came forward the same day Pakistan celebrated the fourth anniversary of its nuclear criterions at Chagai in Baluchistan Province.

Pakistan managemented underground nuclear explosions in May 1998 following similar single in kinds by India.

upon Monday evening, President Pervez Musharraf said in a nationally televised articulate utterance that Pakistan does not want war with archrival India ''but if war is thrust on us, we would respond with replete might.''

''The danger of war is not nevertheless over,'' he said.

Gen Musharraf said that while tension with India was at its height, Pakistan would not be the first to initiate war.

It was the first test-firing of the indigenously discloseed Abdali short-range surface-to-surface missile and proof data show it hit the target with great accuracy, Pakistan Television said.

Musharraf congratulated the scientists and engineers who took part in the progress to maturity of the missile and the test-firing, the report said.

Pakistan informed India and other neighboring countries last week that it would convoy the missile tests to confirm data required for its indigenous missile evolution program.

The medium-range Ghauri missile was standarded Saturday and the short-range Ghaznavi missile was launched Sunday.

India and Pakistan are in the middle of a heated standoff throughout the disputed Kashmir region.

Tension between the couple nuclear powers heightened after heavily armed Muslim militants attacked a bus and stormed a nearby army camp in India's strife-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir onward May 14, killing more than 30 commonalty including women and children and injuring many others.

sum of two units Pakistan-based militant groups have claimed responsibility for the attack.

The pair countries have massed troops along their borders since an attack forward the Indian parliament last December, allegedly according to Pakistan-based separatists.

India and Pakistan have gone to war three times since their independence from Britain in 1947 couple of the conflicts were through Kashmir, two-thirds of which is held by the agency of India.

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