The Hindu : Smear campaign: Musharraf

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 09, 2003

International

International

Smear campaign: Musharraf

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Jan. 8. The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, today complained about what he termed a ``smear campaign'' about nuclear proliferation by Pakistan and maintained that it was the handiwork of forces inimical to Pakistan's status as a nuclear power.

Speaking at a special ceremony held at the A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories to mark the formal handing over of the indigenously developed Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Hatf-V Ghauri System to the Pakistan Army, Gen. Musharraf did not refer to any particular report but obviously had the Los Angels Times story on Abdul Qader Khan in mind.

Gen. Musharraf said that it was a sinister, smear campaign to denigrate and malign national heroes and Pakistan's clean record by hostile lobbies, which had always been inimical to Pakistan's status as a nuclear power. ``We reject all such malicious stories and allegations comprehensively,'' he said. He told the gathering that Ghauri, the indigenously developed mobile launcher, symbolised the national resolve and its induction in the Strategic Forces would radiate the necessary effects of deterrence.

Pakistan had test-fired its surface-to-surface Hatf-V (Ghauri) missile in April 1998. It has a range of 1,500 km.

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