Video: Nawaz Sharif Says Pakistan Reverse-Engineered US Tomahawk Missile; Army Starts Damage Control

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, who is currently living in Pakistan, has revealed that Pakistan had reverse-engineered a US Tomahawk cruise missile to make its own cruise missile in the early 2000s.

Taking to the media about what he had done for the Pakistan military just days after targeting some members of the Army for interfering in politics, the former Pakistan Prime Minister revealed that one of the Tomahawk missiles fired by the US towards Afghanistan had landed in Balochistan.

“One of these missiles, fired by [US President] Clinton towards Afghanistan, landed in Balochistan, and we used back-engineering (sic) to develop our missile programme,” Sharif told journalists in London.

In 1998, when Bill Clinton was the president of the US, the country had launched operation ‘Infinite Reach’ to target Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan following the 7 August bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The US had used Tomahawk cruise missiles for the strike.

Experts said one of these missiles could have landed in Balochistan.

The Tomahawk missile was found undamaged, Sharif claimed.

While Pakistan claims to have developed its long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missiles indigenously, experts believe these delivery platforms have been developed with assistance from China and North Korea.

The former Prime Minister’s comment has not only exposed the inner workings of the Pakistani missile programme but also left the Pakistan Army embarrassed. Former senior officers and scientists close to the military establishment have come out to refute Sharif’s claim. Many have said that the Tomahawk missile found by Pakistan in Balochistan was damaged.