Where is Ghauri? Not in Pak

NEW DELHI, April 8: Even with negligible help from satellite imagery, security specialists here are firmly of the opinion that the firing of...

NEW DELHI, April 8: Even with negligible help from satellite imagery, security specialists here are firmly of the opinion that the firing of the Ghauri missile is a piece of fiction. The evidence to substantiate that belief is available, ironically enough, in the footage aired by Pakistan television last night.

The launch as shown on television was that of a smallish missile from a mobile launcher. An Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile IRBM, on the other hand, could not have been fired from that launcher. An IRBM is too big for a mobile launcher of the kind shown on television. 8220;We cannot launch Agni from a Tatra truck, so who are they trying to fool8221;, exclaimed a Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO scientist.

The other giveaway is that there are only vehicles seen in the telecast, whereas there should have been fixed structures when the Pakistanis claim that they fired from a missile launch base at Jhelum, in West Punjab. While the terrain looked unlike what is expected from theJhelum area, there was no sign of a fixed launching site. And if there had been a permanent site at Jhelum, as claimed by Islamabad, it would have long since been monitored by passing satellites, said military sources here. 8220;By now we would have known about a base at Jhelum, which clearly nobody in the world has heard about8221;, said a South Block source. The clinching evidence, however, lies in the images of the missile telecast. While it is patently small for an IRBM, in relation to the mobile launchers seen with it, what clearly stands out is that it is also a single-stage missile. An IRBM, explained the DRDO scientist, has to have a multi-stage propulsion system to be able to reach the distances desired and claimed. 8220;We would even have had boosters on it, which are not visible on the rocket that the Pakistanis claim is the Ghauri IRBM8221;, he elaborated further. An IRBM has to be able to perform in the parameters of at least a low earth satellite launching capable rocket. This has to do with the distancesto be covered, the trajectory of the missile which will take it into outer space, and thereafter the various Titanium alloys needed for the reentry shields of the nose cone etc. In the telecast of what Pakistan claimed was an IRBM there was no trace of the presence of these technologies and capabilities.

The final piece of the picture is available from Washington. The vagueness of official statements emanating from the US capital are the other indicators that there is something amiss over Pakistan8217;s Ghauri in Jhelum claims. There is the usual regrets and restraint language, which observers here believe hides the truth. And that, say South Block officials, is present in what the American, and Russian, monitoring satellites have picked up during their passage over Pakistan. If there had actually been a launch, the language of the officials in Washington would be very different.

8220;Washington would have also have been going ballistic, as they went in Dec 19958221;, said a Ministry of Defence official. He wasalso referring to the perceived Indian test of a nuclear device in December 1995, and the extent to which the various security agencies in the United States went in leaking satellite imagery to buttress their claims. 8220;What have they done this time 8211; zilch!8221;, he added.