ISLAMABAD: China’s foreign ministry has said that Beijing would continue to work with Pakistan to safeguard its citizens and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, Pakistani state media reported on Monday, a day after a militant attack targeted Chinese nationals in Pakistan’s Gwadar city.
Two militants were killed in the attack on a convoy carrying Chinese engineers that came amid a surge in militant violence in the insurgency-hit Balochistan province, according to Pakistani officials. The Chinese escaped the assault unharmed.
The Gwadar port city lies at the heart of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion network of roads, railways, pipelines, and ports in Pakistan that will connect China to the Arabian Sea and help Islamabad expand and modernize its economy.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman condemned the attack and said that any attempt to sabotage the China-Pakistan friendship and the development of CPEC would not succeed, the Pakistani state-run APP news agency reported.
“China will continue to work with the Pakistani side to jointly guard against and counter the threats of terrorism and earnestly protect the safety of Chinese personnel, institutions and projects in Pakistan,” the report quoted Wang Wenbin as saying at a press briefing.
He confirmed that no Chinese citizens were killed or injured in the attack, adding that the Chinese embassy and the consulate in Pakistan had launched emergency response measures and reminded Chinese nationals, companies, and institutions working on projects in Pakistan to stay vigilant and bolster their security.
Balochistan, which shares a porous border with Iran and Afghanistan, has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baloch nationalists for around two decades. The separatists say they are fighting what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s wealth by the federation. The Pakistani state denies it.
Sunday’s attack came days after Pakistani forces killed two militants in an intelligence-based operation in Balochistan’s Kech district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
Pakistan has long accused neighboring countries and hostile agencies of harboring Baloch separatist fighters and other armed groups that operate in the Balochistan province.
The Pakistani government in July expressed serious concerns over militant “save havens” in Afghanistan after nine Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack on a garrison in Balochistan.
