Pakistan’s army on Thursday said it had successfully tested a ballistic missile Ghaznavi amid heightened tensions with arch-rival India, Anadolu Agency reported.

Named after the 11th-century Afghan King, the missile is capable of delivering multiple types of warheads up to a range of 290 kilometers, according to a statement from the army's media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

This was part of a military drill aimed at training the troops for combat, it added.

President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and the three services Chiefs “congratulated the nation on this landmark achievement,” the statement concluded.

The fresh flare-up in already heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals was sparked by New Delhi’s scrapping of the longstanding special rights of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in August last year.

India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistan who have attacked two wars over Kashmir.

In August 2019, Pakistan successfully carried out the night training launch of Ghaznavi, Director General Inter-Services (ISPR) Public Relations Major General Asif Ghafoor said then.

Earlier in May 2019, Pakistan conducted a successful training launch of Shaheen-II, a surface-to-surface ballistic missile.

In January 2019, Pakistan witnessed another successful launch of the tactical ballistic missile ‘Nasr’ as part of the Army Strategic Forces Command training exercise, according to Dawn news.

The missile is capable of defeating - by assured penetration - “any currently available BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) system in our neighborhood or any other system under procurement or development”, the military’s media wing had said in an earlier statement.