Pak test-fires nuke-capable Ghauri missile

Pakistan on Saturday ‘‘successfully’’ test-fired a 1,500 km-range ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads and striking most of the Indian cities.

“The test was aimed at improving the technical parameters of missile system. There is no other objective,’’ military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said, adding the launch of ‘‘indigenously developed’’ Hatf-5 (Ghauri) missile was “successful”. ‘‘According to data collected from the test all parameters have been validated,’’ Sultan said, without disclosing the area where the test was conducted. Without naming India, he said, advance information of the test-fire was given as part of the confidence building measures.