The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan and the Chinese Consulate General in Karachi have strongly condemned an attack on a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a project in the port city of Gwadar, Pakistan. The convoy was ambushed by bombs and gunshots on their way from the airport to the port on Sunday morning. All Chinese personnel remained safe and have been properly relocated to a safe destination. The Chinese mission in Pakistan asked the Pakistani side to severely punish the attackers and to take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals and institutions engaged in multiple development projects there. The Chinese mission further endorsed that China will continue to work with Pakistan to jointly address the threat of terrorism and effectively protect the security of Chinese personnel, institutions and projects in the country. A banned Baloch insurgent group, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack. Meanwhile, Pakistani security forces launched a security clearance operation in the area, killed one terrorist and injured three others involved in the attack.
The monster of terrorism is flourishing unrestrictedly in the AfPak region, as unceasing armed conflicts, political chaos, and persistent economic volatility had turned the nations across Durand line into an epicentre of anarchism and violence. Unfortunately, warring jihadist Mullahs and tribal warlords never faced a lack of fresh blood and immature minds to accomplish their nefarious agendas, fuel their communal strife, and propagate extremism and terrorism in this universe. In fact, sloganeering of Jihad and nationalism had been the most effective tools of the terrorists for subversion and brainwash of the youths in a disadvantaged society while poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and ignorance provide them breading ground to cultivate underprivileged people to carry forward their anti-state activities without any pause.
Historically, Balochistan had been the soft target for anti-Pakistan forces because of its peculiar geographical location and demography, political issues and smear separatist insurgency that had been at a low brawl throughout the past five decades but it got a threshold after the killing of former Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti during a security operation in 2006. Meanwhile, the construction of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has pushed Balochistan in the centre stage of the ongoing tussle between major powers, along with attracting a renewed hostility from New Delhi which constituted a spacial desk at RAW Headquarters to support Baloch insurgents and sabotage
CPEC projects in violence hit Balochistan. Historically, arrest of Indian spy and serving Naval Officer Kulbhuhshan Yadhav by the Pakistani LEAs was a clear evidence of New Delhi’s sponsorship of terrorist activities inside Pakistan. Apparently, the global rivalry and foreign conspiracy not only undermined the normal pace of development in the province but also derailed and slow down the growth and development work under the CPEC projects. Over the years, common Baloch has suffered through the civil insurgency, while the latest wave of CPEC focused terrorist activities are further pluming their economic woes for other several decades.
The recent attack on Chinese convoy working on the CPEC is a message to newly crowned care taker Prime Minister Anwaar Kakar, who must take this as a challenge and try to resolve this issue by using all out resources including political talks, Baloch tribal jirga, secret Intelligence operation and kinetic use of the military force to wiped out this menace from the poverty stricken province once and for all. Realistically, Nawabs and Sardars are equally responsible for the backwardness of Balochistan, who sent their children to Switzerland and Great Britain for higher education and leisure but didn’t allow ordinary tribesmen to get education and improve their lives. This feudal system gave birth to unceasing poverty and illiteracy while Baloch insurgency is another product of this feudalism. That prompted a few Baloch Nawabs to claim their heirloom right to govern the people of the province. we have already mentioned during these pages that MP Kakar currently owes a unique position as a caretaker Prime Minister and a son of soil. He can play a crucial role in the resolution of unsolvable puzzle of Balochistan issue. The government must take the Baloch people on board to initiate a province wide crusade against the Baloch insurgents and indoctrinate a common Baloch about the future prospects of the ongoing development and energy projects under the CPEC that will not only fail foreign conspiracy against province but will lead to a sustainable economic growth and prosperity for a common citizen in the future. For that end, Mr. Kakar must mobilize LEAs and SIAs to build pressure on separatist groups and engage Baloch tribal elders and political leadership to resolve the Balochistan issue on permanent basis. It would be a great victory of Baloch and a magnificent gift for the people of Pakistan.
