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Pakistan conducts five N-tests

Sixteen days after India detonated a nuclear device, and after days of fudging before American officials, Pakistan finally exploded five nuclear devices on Thursday at 1523 hours local time (1553 hours IST).

In a day of hectic development, when Indian High Commissioner Satish Lamba was summoned before the foreign office at 0100 hours to warn him that Islamabad would retaliate if India attacked Pakistani nuclear installations, the Islamic country took the only course it could have to stave off domestic wrath.

Pakistan detonated three devices in the Chagai region of Pakistan's desolate south-western Baluchistan province, barely 50 Km from the border with Iran and Pakistan.

The USA, which had reacted swiftly with sanctions in the case of the Indian nuclear tests, was yet to officially react to the tests.

It is expected that given the state of Pakistan's economy, Western sanctions, which are bound to follow as sure as a mushroom cloud does a nuclear explosion, will have a greater impact on it than it does on India.

In a statement that followed the testing, Pakistan said it was ready to adapt a nuclear warhead to its newly tested long-range Ghauri missile.

''The long-range Ghauri missile is already being capped with the nuclear warheads to give a befitting reply to any misadventure by the enemy,'' a statement released following the testing said.

Pakistan tested the Ghauri missile on April 6, a missile that is capable of travelling 1,500 km and hitting most targets in India.

The government has been under pressure from across the political spectrum to explode a nuclear device of its own since India carried out its first three tests on May 11.

Both Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief have been critical of the Western world's response to India's testing, calling it ''lacklustre.''

UNI

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