(Reuters) – Pakistan’s military test-fired a Pakistani-built unmanned aircraft armed with a laser-guided missile on Friday, an army statement said, giving it a new weapon to target Taliban and other jihadist militants in its lawless border areas.
Pakistan has long sought a weaponised drone capability of its own as an alternative to U.S. drones that fly into Pakistani air space — raising sovereignty issues — to target al Qaeda, Taliban and other militants along its border with Afghanistan.
Video released showed the “Burraq” drone taking off from a runway and firing a missile to destroy a hut designated as the target.
The army chief of staff, General Raheel Sharif, was shown watching the test-firing with other military officers and engineers who clapped and shouted “God is great” when the target was destroyed.
The military’s official Twitter account hailed the test-fire on Friday as “a great national achievement” and said the new drone “multiplies capability against terrorists”.
Pakistan often publicly denounces U.S. drone strikes as an infringement of its sovereignty. Drone strikes stopped for the first six months of 2014 while Pakistan pursued peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, but resumed a few days before Pakistan’s latest anti-Taliban offensive started last June.
In November 2013, the military announced it had developed unarmed surveillance-capable drones called the “Burraq” and “Shahpar”, the first unmanned aircraft to be developed in Pakistan.