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What has happened?
- Multiple deaths have been reported in Pakistan’s port city of Gwadar after a massive explosion targeted Chinese nationals, according to media reports.
- Police said two children were killed and three got injured in a suicide blast that took place at the East Bay Road in the port of Gwadar around 7 pm.
- The Pakistan interior ministry said in a statement that a Chinese national got injured in the attack and was rushed to a nearby hospital.
- A spokesperson for the provincial government said the blast has claimed the lives of two children and injured three people, including the car’s driver.
- Another report by The Balochistan Post, however, claimed that nine Chinese nationals have been killed in the blast.
- A convoy of Chinese engineers was reportedly targeted in the blast near the construction site of a road that is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Who claimed the attack?
- Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist militant organisation has claimed responsibility for the “self-sacrificing” attack on Chinese engineers.
- “BLA carried out a ‘self-sacrificing’ attack against a convoy of Chinese engineers,” the group said in a statement.
CONFLICT BETWEEN PAKISTAN AND BALOCHISTAN?
- Baloch activists claim that the province was forcibly taken over by Pakistan on March 27, 1948.
- The activists claim that without the forcible occupation, Balochistan – the largest and resource-rich yet most backward province of Pakistan – Could have been a free nation.
- The region has since seen ongoing insurgency with the Balochistan Liberation Army, one of the most prominent separatist groups in Balochistan,
- Carrying out several terror attacks on Pakistani military locations as well as security personnel.
- The organisation has been branded ‘terrorist’ by the Pakistani government.
CPEC Project
- Balochistan is poor despite its natural resources — a source of great anger to residents who complain they do not receive a fair share of the gas and mineral wealth.
- Resentment has been fuelled by billions of dollars of Chinese money flowing into the region through the CPEC –
- A key part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative — which locals say gave them little benefit as most new jobs went to outsiders.
- Protests have erupted in Pakistan’s port city Gwadar against a severe shortage of water and electricity and threats to livelihoods, part of a growing backlash against China’s multibillion-dollar belt and road projects in the country.
- This week, demonstrators including fishers and other local workers blocked the roads in Gwadar, a coastal town in Balochistan.
- They burned tyres, chanted slogans and largely shut down the city, to demand water and electricity and A stop to Chinese trawlers illegally fishing in the nearby waters and then taking the fish to China.
- Two people were injured when the authorities cracked down on the protesters.
- The protests are part of a growing discontent with China’s presence in
- Under the project, Pakistan surrendered Gwadar port to a Chinese-backed multinational corporation for a lease of 40 years.
- The Pakistan government accepted China’s investment in the hope it would help boost the country’s ailing economy.
- But Balochistan is home to a long-running violent insurgency, and China’s presence in Gwadar has been the cause of much social unrest and led to great anti-Chinese sentiment.
Q) Under Pak-China Economic Corridor, a high-speed railway track will be laid at a cost of 2.8 billion dollars from Peshawar to?
- Lahore
- Karachi
- Gwadar
- Kashgar
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