Militants have killed 44
and wounded 100 workers related to CPEC since 2014
Daily Times 8/09/16
Militants – trying to
disrupt China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) construction – have killed 44
workers since 2014, an official said on Thursday.
The rising toll is likely
to reinforce Beijing’s concerns about the security of CPEC – a $46 billion
network of roads, railways and energy pipelines linking China to Pakistan’s
Arabian Sea coast – which passes through the already agitated Balochistan.
According to the project’s
officials, strong security measures have greatly developed the condition of the
resource-rich province – where ethnic separatists, also opposing the project,
have been batting the government for years.
Frontier Works
Organisation (FWO) – a construction company – Spokesman Colonel Zafar Iqbal
said that all the murdered workers were Pakistani nationals who were either
victim to roadside bombs or the attacks on the construction sites.
“The latest figure show 44
deaths and over 100 wounded since 2014,” Iqbal told Reuters. While indicating
that the toll had accelerated in the current year, he said that in November
2015, the official figure was 25 killed.
The project is part of a
Chinese plan to build land, sea and air routes across Asia to boost trade and
conquer new overseas markets. Chinese officials have appealed for improved
security in Balochistan and other regions where the projects are planned or are
under way.
Pakistan – in an attempt
to address the Chinese’ concerns – last year created an army division to focus
specifically on protecting CPEC projects and the Chinese workers. It believed
to number more than 10,000 troops, the spokesman said. FWO – which is owned by
the Pakistan Army – has been awarded the bulk of road-building contracts in
Balochistan and other volatile areas in the country.
Officials conceded to the
region’s security problems but said that the work was progressing ahead of
schedule. About $4.5 billion of the project’s investment was for road
infrastructure while two-thirds of the total $46 billion investment was
funnelled toward energy projects. Officials expect the CPEC projects to
significantly boost the country’s economic growth above the current 5% a year.
The overall security in
Pakistan had improved over the past few years but militant groups were still
staging major attacks from time to time. Last month, militants killed 74 people
in a hospital bombing in Quetta – the provincial capital.
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