By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD (AA) - Pakistan on Tuesday conducted "successful" training launch of surface-to-surface ballistic missile Shaheen-II, the military said.

"The training launch was aimed at training of troops, validating various technical parameters and performance evaluation of different sub-systems incorporated for improved accuracy and enhanced survivability," the Pakistani army said in a statement.

Tuesday's training launch was witnessed by senior officers from the Strategic Plans Division and Army Strategic Forces Command, as well as scientists and engineers of strategic organizations.

Shaheen-II is capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads up to a range of 1,500 kilometers (932 miles).

President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen. Sahir Shamshad Mirza, and services chiefs congratulated the scientists and engineers on their achievement.

The two South Asian arch rivals -- Pakistan and India -- are among a small handful of countries with nuclear arsenals. India joined the nuclear club long before Pakistan, in 1974, prompting Islamabad to follow suit.

Pakistan silently developed its own nuclear capability in the 1980s, when it was an ally of the US in the first Afghan war against the crumbling Soviet Union.

It did not conduct any nuclear tests until India carried out a series of its own tests in 1999. Only three weeks later, Pakistan conducted six successful tests in the remote Chaghi district near the Afghanistan-Iran border, stoking fears of a nuclear war between the longtime rivals.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, India currently possesses between 80 and 100 nuclear warheads, while Pakistan holds between 90 and 110.