ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Benazir claims credit as Ghauri test-firing site turns pilgrimage centre

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has claimed credit for Ghauri missile even as its test-fire site has become a pilgrimage centre.

Thousands of people have begun thronging the site of the test-firing at the Kahuta Nuclear Research Laboratory, about 40 km south of Rawalpindi, turning it into a carnival area.

Besides stirring a hornet's nest in the international arena, the controversial missile has provoked a battle of words between the government and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto with both claiming credit for the missile.

After being apparently swayed by the interest it has evoked among the public, Bhutto said it was during her regime that the missile was conceived and the Nawaz Sharief government did not have any major role in it.

She also claimed t was the development of the missile system in Pakistan that brought down her government. However, she did not elaborate who brought down her government.

She said the credit for the achievement goes to her father and former prime minister Z A Bhutto who had initiated the country's nuclear programme.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report