KARACHI: Militants trying to disrupt construction of an “economic corridor” linking China with Pakistan’s coast have killed 44 workers since 2014, an official said on Thursday, a rising toll likely to reinforce Chinese worry about the project’s security.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a $46 billion network of roads, railways and energy pipelines linking western China to a deepwater port on Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast, which passes through Balochistan.
Officials say they have taken tough measures and that security has greatly improved in Balochistan.
Colonel Zafar Iqbal, a spokesperson for construction company Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), said all of the workers killed were Pakistanis and most fell victim to roadside bombs and attacks on construction sites.
“The latest figure has climbed up to 44 deaths and over 100 wounded men on CPEC projects, mainly road construction in Balochistan, which began in 2014,” Iqbal told a foreign news agency.
In November 2015, the official figure was 25 killed, indicating that the toll had accelerated this year.
The projects are part of a Chinese plan to build land, sea and air routes across Asia and beyond, boosting trade and winning new markets overseas for Chinese companies as domestic growth slows. Chinese officials have appealed for improved security in Balochistan and other regions where projects are planned or underway. In a bid to address their fears, Pakistan last year created an army division, believed to number more than 10,000 troops, to focus specifically on protecting CPEC projects and Chinese workers. The FWO, owned by the Pakistan Army, has been awarded the bulk of road-building contracts in Balochistan and other volatile areas in the country.
