Men watch Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing to the nation, on a TV screen inside their shop in Kolkata, India, March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan issued a call against military threats in outer space on Wednesday, hours after India said it had shot down one of its own satellites in a demonstration of its growing power in space.

“Space is the common heritage of mankind and every nation has the responsibility to avoid actions which can lead to the militarization of this arena,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“We hope that countries which have in the past strongly condemned demonstration of similar capabilities by others will be prepared to work towards developing international instruments to prevent military threats relating to outer space,” it said, without mentioning India by name.

“Boasting of such capabilities is reminiscent of Don Quixote’s tilting against windmills,” it said, in a reference to the delusional hero of the 17th-century Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes.