NEW DELHI, Jan 18: Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani on Saturday ruled out talks with Pakistan even as New Delhi signalled its continued hostility towards the neighbour by testing its surface-to-air Akash missile.
A similar test in October was described by Islamabad as provocative.
“Pakistan must abandon the use of terrorism as an instrument of policy. It must dismantle the structure of terrorism it has created within its own country,” Advani told reporters in Bangalore.
He alleged that Pakistan’s aiding and abetting of terrorism had been testified from the fact that even Al Qaeda and Taliban had moved into that country, news reports said.
“Unless it (Pakistan) does that (dismantling of structure of terrorism), we see no point in holding talks and this stand has been made clear even to the international community,” Advani was quoted by Zee News as saying.
United News of India said the medium-range “Akash” was successfully test-fired from the Interim Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea.
According to ITR sources, quoted by UNI, the missile, considered as one of the major milestones in the country’s integrated guided missile development programme, was test-fired at 1525 hours.
The missile, with a range of 25km, has an advanced booster and ramjet propulsion having a multiple target of handling capability, UNI said.
India had last test-fired the Akash missile in October after initially declaring that Pakistan’s successful test-firing of its own medium-range surface-to-surface Shaheen ballistic missile earlier that day did not perturb it.
