Pakistan modified ‘defensive’ American missiles to pose threat to India: NYT India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Top US administration and Congressional officials have accused Pakistan of illegally modifying American-made missiles to expand its capability to strike land targets, a potential threat to India. Officials alleged that Islamabad has customized conventional Harpoon antiship missiles, which were provided to it by the Reagan administration as a defensive weapon in the cold war era. “There’s a concerted effort to get these guys to slow down.Their energies are misdirected,” said one senior administration official. The accusations come at a time when the Obama administration is pushing the Congress to approve 7.5 billion dollars in aid to Pakistan over the next five years. It is also worth mentioning here that Washington, time and again, has asked Islamabad to focus more fighting the Taliban rather than expanding its nuclear and conventional forces against India. According the New York Times, US officials made these accusations in ‘unpublicized’ diplomatic protest to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and other top Pakistani officials in June. The United States has also accused Pakistan of modifying American-made P-3C aircraft for land-attack missions. “The focus of our concern is that this is a potential unauthorized modification of a maritime antiship defensive capability to an offensive land-attack missile. The potential for proliferation and end-use violations are things we watch very closely,” said another official on conditions of anonymity, adding, “When we have concerns, we act aggressively.” However, Pakistan has denied the charge, saying it developed the missile itself. A senior Pakistan said that the missile was developed by Pakistan, just as it had modified North Korean designs to build a range of land-based missiles that could strike India.