Pakistan rejects India's dismissal of missile mishap

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan on Wednesday rejected New Delhi’s dismissal of the firing in March of an Indian missile that landed in Pakistani territory as “an accident.”

The reaction came a day after New Delhi sacked the three Indian Air Force officers found responsible for the incident, which was handled by the two nuclear neighbors with calm.

The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which on March 9 struck a private cold storage property in the city of Mian Channu in northeastern Punjab province, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Indian border, luckily did not cause any casualties.

"Pakistan categorically rejects India’s purported closure of the highly irresponsible incident and reiterates its demand for a joint probe," said a Foreign Ministry statement.

New Delhi had acknowledged that "in the course of routine maintenance, a technical malfunctioning led to the accidental firing of the missile" that landed in Pakistan.

"As expected, the measures taken by India in the aftermath of the incident and the subsequent findings and punishments handed by the so-called internal Court of Inquiry are totally unsatisfactory, deficient and inadequate," the statement said.

India, it added, has not only "failed" to respond to Pakistan's demand for a joint inquiry but has also "evaded" the questions raised by Islamabad regarding "the command and control system in place in India, the safety and security protocols and the reason for India’s delayed admission of the missile launch."

"Systemic loopholes and technical lapses of a serious nature in the handling of strategic weapons cannot be covered up beneath the veneer of individual human error. If indeed India has nothing to hide, then it must accept Pakistan’s demand for a joint probe in the spirit of transparency," the statement added.

Islamabad maintained that the "imprudent" Indian action had jeopardized the peace and security environment of the entire region.

It urged the Indian government to "immediately" provide specific responses to the queries raised by Pakistan after the incident and to accede to its call for a joint probe.

The two longtime rivals have fought three full-scale wars -- two of them on Kashmir -- and have been involved in a series of mountain and border clashes since 1947.