http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/06/03/pakistan.russia/index.html
How India we know these were only test missles? Especially at this time where everybody has their finger on their respective triggers, I am amazed that India didn’t launch real missles in response.
Pakistan calls India, says: “We’ll be launching some missiles, on day YY, at XX:XX o’clock, headed whattaway. These are just tests, don’t be alarmed”. India watches their radar on day YY, at XX:XX o’clock, and checks to see that the missiles are, in fact, going ‘thattaway’, and everyone takes a deep breath of relief…
Actually, it’s a bit more complex than that, involving diplomatic niceties and such, but basically, that’s how it’s done.
New Delhi is pretty darned close to Pakistan. If Pakistan wanted to drop a few missiles there India really couldn’t do a damned thing about it. As Tranquilis mentioned the Pakistanis likely informed India anyway but even if they didn’t it would take longer for India to respond with an attack of their own than it would take for any missile Pakistan to hit its target. By the time Indians get all geared up to counter-attack it would be completely obvious whether they had been attacked at all and they could easily back down.
Of course, the real fireworks with such a thing by the Pakistanis is all on the political side. The missiles carried more of a message than a warhead.