Pak to unveil new missile

Ghauri, reportedly developed mainly to counter India’s Prithvi missiles, has "very low chances" of missing a target at a distance of even 1,500 km, and can be used both as a surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missile, the report said.

It has been developed under the supervision of Pakistan’s renowned nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who had earlier confirmed that the new missile was being developed at a defence factory at Attock, 100 km west of here.

Ghauri will be displayed during the Pakistan Day celebrations to demonstrate Islamabad’s defence capability, the report said.

Though the KPI report claims that Ghauri has been fully developed by Pakistani scientists with indigenous technology, Islamabad’s long tie-up with Beijing for missile technology has been a well-established fact for quite some time now.

Pakistan had earlier announced the successful test firing of medium-range missiles in the `Hatf’ series, which have a maximum range of up to 800 km.

The KPI report also said that American Intelligence Agency CIA first broke the news that Pakistan was working on an IRBM and that this fact came to light during the caretaker regime of Malik Meraj Khalid after the dismissal of the Benazir Bhutto government in November 1996. It was only after the confirmation of this report that India ordered the installation of the Prithvi missiles near the border at Jallandhar, KPI said.

Ghauri is equipped with the latest guidance technology, and necessary changes in the F-series of fighter planes of the Pakistan Air Force have already been carried out for mounting it, the report said.