The army on Thursday successfully test-fired a short range surface-to-surface ballistic missile capable of hitting land and sea targets with “high precision” up to 450 kilometres away, a press release by the Inter-Services Public Relations said.

The Babur cruise missile IA was launched from a "state of the art Multi Tube Missile Launch Vehicle", the media statement said further.

The test launch was attended by National Engineering and Scientific Commission (Nescom) Chairperson Dr Raza Samar, Commander of Army Strategic Forces Command Lt Gen Muhammad Ali, senior officers of strategic plans division, army strategic forces command as well as scientists and engineers of strategic organisation.

Nescom chief Dr Samar lauded the "standard of training and operational preparedness" of the armed forces which "was reflected by the proficient handling of the weapon system in the field". He also hailed the contributions of scientists and engineers towards the "enhancement of Pakistan's strategic capability".

The armed forces also received congratulations and praise from Prime Minister Imran Khan, President Arif Alvi, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairperson and the services chiefs.

This is the third missile test carried out over the past three weeks. On January 20, the army conducted a successful test of the surface-to-surface ballistic missile Shaheen-III.

Earlier this month, the army successfully conducted the ‘training launch’ of nuclear-capable ballistic mis­sile Ghaznavi as part of its annual field training exercise.

Earlier in January this year, the army had also test-fired an indigenously developed extended-range guided Multi-Launch Rocket System (MLRS).