Pakistan vows to stand with ally China, defeat terrorism’s aim to ‘drive a wedge’

At least 50 civilians and security personnel were killed in about a dozen insurgent attacks in ethnic Baloch majority areas of the province over the weekend. The attacks were timed to coincide with the 17th anniversary of the 2006 assassination of the province’s former chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti by the army after he rebelled against military dictator Pervez Musharraf.

During the attacks, rebels cut off vast, rugged and thinly populated Balochistan – home to the Chinese-operated Arabian Sea port of Gwadar – from the rest of the country by blockading major highways and blowing up railway bridges.

Paramilitary forces’ bases were assaulted by suicide squads while several posts and police stations were overrun.

In an incident that horrified Pakistanis and others, the rebels executed 23 bus passengers after identifying them as residents of the populous, politically dominant province of Punjab.

No Chinese projects or personnel were targeted during the weekend campaign.

Nonetheless, Sharif saw the wave of attacks in Balochistan as an attempt to scare off investors from the strategically located mineral-rich province, particularly Beijing.

Balochistan is the southernmost node in the envisioned US$65 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor project, which was launched in 2016 with the core aim of connecting Xinjiang overland to the western Indian Ocean via Gwadar port.

Following several lethal attacks in recent years against Chinese nationals working in Pakistan by Baloch and Taliban insurgents, most recently in April, Beijing has repeatedly stressed that its future investments in the country depend on Islamabad’s ability to provide a safe and politically stable business environment.

The multipronged attacks in Balochistan coincided