Web | May 08, 2004
OPINION
The Chinese In Baluchistan
Who's behind the blast at Gwadar that killed three Chinese? Baluchi tribes, say Pak authorities but the Chinese suspicion seems to be directed at anti-Beijing Uighur extremist elements who have taken shelter in the tribal areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.
B. RAMAN
(To be read in continuation of my earlier article titled Unrest In Baluchistan)
Three Chinese, belonging to the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), were killed when a car laden with explosives hit a van in which they were travelling to the site of a new commercial and naval port under construction by the Chinese company at Gwadar in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan on May 3, 2004.
The police seem to believe the explosion was caused by unidentified elements through remote control. It was not a case of suicide bombing. Eleven others, nine of them Chinese and two Pakistanis--a driver and a security guard, were injured. No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.
Following the incident, President Pervez Musharraf ordered the replacement of all Baluchi Policemen posted for the security of the Chinese personnel working and living in Gwadar and other places in Baluchistan with men of the Frontier Corps. A special unit of the Frontier Corps has already been inducted into the Gwadar area for the purpose.About 400 Chinese are working and living in Gwadar, which has a total population of about 60,000-70,000.
The first phase of the $250-million project, which was launched in 2002, is scheduled to be completed by March next year and it is reported that the Chinese have said they might complete the project before the deadline. The blast took place on the eve of an international investors' meeting scheduled for May 8 at Quetta to invite foreign investment in Baluchistan.
Even before the blast, the responsibility for the security of the construction site had been entrusted to the Pakistan Army and the Navy, but the Baluchi Police used to be responsible for the personal security of the Chinese personnel.
Gwadar and other fishing hamlets of the Mekran coast have many people with close links to the people of Yemen and Qatar and in the past many fishermen in the area had been used by Al Qaeda for the smuggling of trained cadres and arms and ammunition into Yemen in their fishing boats.From there, they used to find their way into Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The Pakistani security forces posted there have been turning a blind eye to this traffic despite its security implications for the project.
The Musharraf regime has been attaching considerable importance to the successful completion of this commercial-cum-naval port. Even though it is projected as meant to facilitate the foreign trade of Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Central Asian Republics (CAR) and the Xinjiang Province of China, its real importance in the eyes of the Pakistani military is due to the fact that its successful construction and commissioning would reduce the dependence of Pakistan's foreign trade on the Karachi port, through which over 70 per cent of its foreign trade presently passes, and provide the Pakistan Navy with a relatively safe rear base , not within easy reach of the Indian Navy and Air Force, from which it could operate against the Indian Navy in the case of another war between the two countries.
The Chinese interest in assisting Pakistan in this project is due to their desire to strengthen the capability of the Pakistan Navy against the Indian and to have base facilities for their own naval ships when they visit the Gulf region. Under the agreement for Chinese assistance, the Pakistani military was also reported to have permitted the Chinese military intelligence to set up a listening post at Gwadar to monitor the movement of US naval ships in the Gulf region similar to the listening post which the Myanmar's military regime has allowed the Chinese to set up on the CoCo Islands.
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