Islamabad: Pakistan for the second time in a week today (June 4, 2004) "successfully" test fired a nuclear capable missile Ghauri having a range of 1500 km that could hit most Indian cities, but said it was "not to send political signals outside the country".

According to a military statement, President Pervez Musharraf, who witnessed the launch, said, "The test was not intended to send any political signals outside the country but was necessary for validation of technical parameters."

Pakistan this morning (June 4, 2004) carried out second successful test fire of its indigenously developed medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile Hatf-5 (Ghauri), which travelled upto 900 kilometres in range meeting all required parameters, the statement said. Pakistan had test fired a Hatf-5 on May 29.

Rejecting that the test would have any impact on the Indo-Pak dialogue process scheduled to begin later this month, officials in the Foreign Ministry said it was not intentional and these tests were conducted periodically to validate ballistic missiles.