In the aftermath of recent terrorist attacks on Chinese people in Pakistan, China is allegedly pressuring Pakistan to allow it to build military outposts for its compatriots working there. Thousands of Chinese workers are working in Pakistan on a variety of projects funded by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in Karachi, Balochistan, and Gilgit-Baltistan.
This comes less than a month after a female suicide bomber from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) terrorist organization hit a vehicle on the campus of Karachi University, killing three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver. China has always demanded protection for its citizens, according to News18, which quoted sources in Islamabad. They are looking at locations that were previously utilized or influenced by the US during the Cold Fights and the war on terror.
According to the sources, China is attempting to persuade Pakistan by pledging to roll over debts incurred by the CPEC projects, which the cash-strapped Islamabad has been seeking for a long time owing to the economic crisis. China, Pakistan’s all-weather ally, has been experiencing a mounting reaction in restive Balochistan, particularly from the BLA.
Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running deadly conflict. Baloch militant organizations have already carried out many attacks against the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. The $60 billion CPEC is a 3,000-kilometer-long infrastructure project connecting China’s northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the Gwadar Port in the western Pakistan state of Balochistan. India has appealed to China about the CPEC, which is being built across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
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