Pakistan fakes test-launch of Babur-3

Islamabad : On Monday, Pakistan claimed to have conducted a successful test of Babur–3, a Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM) which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Pakistan’s Prime minister congratulated the scientists involved in this test. Western newspapers too have taken a note of this and have expressed fear that this may lead to an Indo-Pak war. However it is now becoming clear that the missile test video published by Pakistan is a fake.

Pakistani military has said that Babur-3 test was carried out at an undisclosed location in the Indian Ocean. They also claimed that the missile, which has a range of 450 kilometres was fired from an underwater mobile platform as against a submarine and it hit the intended target with precision. This has made Pakistan capable of a ‘second strike’, claimed its military. Pakistan celebrated its inclusion in the small list of countries, capable of a nuclear counter-attack.

Pakistan’s Inter service public relation (ISPR) has said that this success is an important milestone for Pakistan’s responsible atomic policy. Some anti-India from Pakistan analysts started vaunting that with the success of Babur-3 Pakistan has gone one step ahead of India and that India would never be able to conduct a nuclear attack on Pakistan. However doubts have been raised about the authenticity of Babur-3 test video published by ISPR. Indian experts claim that the video is a fake. This video is a combination of three to four different videos of missiles put together. The colour of the missile seems to change in the video and even the missile speed seems to be much more than the specified speed of ‘Babur 3’. As per some Indian experts, these questions are enough to raise questions about the authenticity of the video.

Even in the past, it has been seen that Pakistan has made false claims about its military prowess. Few weeks back, Pakistan had claimed that they had detected and prevented an Indian submarine from entering Pakistani waters. This proved its navy’s capability, for which Pakistan patted its own back. However it has been brought into light that even this claim was false. Experts claim that considering the naval capacity of Pakistan, it is impossible for them to spot submarines. Indian navy chief also dismissed this claim. After India’s successful test of ICBM ‘Agni-5’ and ‘Agni-4’, Pakistan is desperately trying to give a suitable response to India. It is a possibility that ISPR might have faked claims of ‘Babur-3’ owing to this.