Treaty violation? Pak says India 'leaked' Shaheen 1 to media

Just days after India successfully test fired its first Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), Agni-V, media reports said Pakistan had informed India that it plans to conduct a long-range missile test very soon.

Pakistan now accuses India of violating a 2005 bilateral agreement by leaking news about Pakistan’s nuclear missile launch to its media.

On Wednesday, when Pakistan tested its Hatf IV missile, part of its Shaheen I series, it notified India of the test. Pakistan and India normally notify each other seven days in advance if they are to test launch a long-range ballistic missile. But, leaking it to the media is a violation, according to a report in a Pakistan’s journal thenews.com

The  news reports from Pakistan said, “someone from the government leaked the information to the Indian media well before Pakistan carried out the test on Wednesday.”

The report also said:

The Pakistani officials are not ready, for now at least, to comment publicly except to say that India leaked the news and violated the 2005 bilateral agreement. The spin that India wanted to put on the leaked report was to imply that Pakistan’s test was a reaction to the Indian Agni ICBM test and India was only given a day’s notice. It is well known in security circles that it takes months to plan and carry out a test and it is not done whimsically at the drop of a hat.

Pakistan successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile on Wednesday. Pakistan’s Shaheen-1A is an intermediate range ballistic missile, capable of reaching targets in India.

But did India actually violate the bilateral agreement? Even more, did it break the trust of Pakistan?