10 workers linked to Chinese project killed in Pakistan

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

Gunmen shot dead 10 laborers and injured two others who were working on a road project linked to the multi-billion-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in southwestern Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Saturday, according to a provincial minister.

The latest attack coincides with the signing of several agreements aimed at boosting cooperation in different sectors between Pakistan and China on the sidelines of the Road and Belt Forum currently being held in the Chinese capital, Beijing, on Saturday.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti told reporters that a group of gunmen on motorcycles had opened fire on the workers at a construction site on the outskirts of Gawadar city, killing eight of them on the spot while another two succumbed to their wounds at a nearby hospital.

Gawadar with its 600-kilometer (373-mile) long coastline hosts a key deep seaport operated by China, which aims to get direct access to the Indian Ocean in line with its over $51 billion CPEC megaproject.

The much-publicized project agreed in 2014 aims to connect China's strategically-important northwestern Xinxiang province to Gawadar port through a network of roads, railways and pipelines to transport cargo, oil and gas.

The economic corridor will not only provide China with cheaper access to Africa and the Middle East markets but will also benefit Pakistan which would receive billions of dollars for providing transit facilities to the world’s second-largest economy.

So far, no group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Recently, there have been several ambushes on security forces and civilians in the city and elsewhere in Balochistan by suspected Baloch separatists who have been fighting for the cessation of mineral-rich province from Pakistan.

In the past, Chinese workers have also come under attack, some of whom were killed and kidnapped in southwestern and northwestern Pakistan. These attacks were blamed on Baloch separatists and Taliban militants.