Taliban, separatists may attack Chinese interests in Sindh

Karachi
Intelligence agencies have warned that Taliban militants and Sindhi separatist groups might attack Chinese nationals working on development projects in various parts of Sindh.
“The interior ministry has recently informed the Sindh home department that it had received intelligence reports about some militant groups planning to attack Chinese nationals working on electricity projects and other development schemes in the province,” a home department official told The News.
Responding on the interior ministry’s intimation, the home department has directed provincial police and Rangers chiefs to take strict measures for the protection of Chinese nationals.
The Chinese government is involved in multi-billion dollar projects in the development sector in Sindh, particularly in the field of electricity generation.
In recent months, there have been reports suggesting that Chinese nationals working in these projects are facing security threats.
There have been attempts to kidnap and kill Chinese workers in Hyderabad, Matiari and Sukkur in recent years, but they were foiled by law enforcement agencies.
Dr Moizuddin Pirzada, a spokesperson for the Sindh police, said a comprehensive security plan was being chalked out for the protection of Chinese nationals.
“Many Chinese nationals are working in different fields in various parts of the province and the Sindh police have periodically been reviewing their security plans and taking strict measures for their protection,” Pirzada told The News.
However, he did not share the details of locations where Chinese nationals were working because of security reasons.
A police officer said there were over 300 Chinese nationals working on around 30 development projects in the Hyderabad region alone. “Police, Rangers and the Frontier Constabulary are jointly working on protecting Chinese nationals in the region and have set up an effective intelligence network for this purpose,” he added.
Muhammad Amir Rana, the director of Pak Institute for Peace Studies, said Chinese nationals in Sindh were facing threats on multiple fronts.
He added that militant groups associated with the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a Chinese terrorist outfit, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), al Qaeda and the Jundullah could attack Chinese nationals.
Besides, he noted, Sindhi and Baloch separatist groups as well as criminal syndicates operating in the province’s rural parts also posed a threat.

ETIM-allied Taliban
The ETIM, which is also described as the Turkistan Islamic Party, is based in China’s Xinjiang province and largely comprise Uighar militants.
“The ETIM has worked closely with different factions of the TTP and foreign militants, especially al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas since 2009,” said Rana.
“Therefore, their allies might target Chinese interests anywhere in the country including Sindh.”
Influential Uzbek militant leader, Abu Zar al-Burmi, released a video message last year directing Taliban groups to target Chinese interests in the region.
“US forces pulling out from Afghanistan is a victory of the Taliban movement in the region and our next target will be China,” al-Burmi said in the video, instructing Taliban groups to attack Chinese embassies and companies and kidnap or kill the country’s nationals.
Recently, the Jaish-ul-Hadeed, a little-known militant group, released a video of a Chinese national kidnapped in DI Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in May last year.
Rana said the military operation Zarb-e-Azb in the tribal areas had shattered the network of the ETIM and the TTP in North Waziristan.
However, he added, they could attack Chinese nationals in retaliation.
In Karachi, the law enforcement agencies, especially Rangers, have weakened three key factions of the TTP in their ongoing crackdown against criminals. But in recent months, TTP-linked militant groups have become active in rural Sindh, especially in its northern districts including Shikarpur and Kashmore. After an attack on an imambargah in Shikarpur in Januray this year, the law enforcement agencies found a network of Taliban militants active in upper parts of the province and launched a crackdown against them in bordering areas of Sindh and Balochistan.

Separatist groups
Besides the ETIM-linked militants, analysts fear that Sindhi and Baloch separatist groups also pose a threat to Chinese interests in the province.
Manzoor Chandio, a Karachi-based veteran journalist, said there were already anti-China sentiments among Sindh’s nationalist groups and civil society organisations for its investment in the controversial Zulfikarabad project in district Thatta.
“They [nationalist groups] think that the project will turn Sindhis into a minority in their own province as land will be sold to outsiders,” he added.
In 2012, the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, the province’s key nationalist group, ran a campaign to boycott Chinese products and later tried to stage a protest rally outside the Chinese consulate in Karachi but were stopped by police.
“Most Sindhi nationalist groups are expressing their concerns against China but in peaceful ways,” Chandio told The News. “But there are some rebels who believe in an armed struggle and might target Chinese interests.”
Police and security analyst believe that the Sindhudesh Liberation Army (SDLA), a banned Sindhi separatist group led by Shafi Burfat and affiliated with the Jeay Sindh Mahaz (JSM), is a key group that can attack Chinese companies.
“The SDLA has been involved in many bomb attacks on government installations, especially railway tracks and state-run banks, in the province,” a police officer said. However, he maintained that the recent crackdown and killings of JSM workers in different parts of the province had weakened the group.
An intelligence official said the SDLA was working with Baloch separatist groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Front and the Balochistan Liberation Army. The Baloch separatist groups oppose Chinese investment in Gwadar. They have claimed responsibility for many attacks on the convoys of Chinese engineers in Balochistan.
“There is a clear association between banned Sindhi and Baloch separatist groups and they support each other in their subversive activities,” said the official. “They have same anti-China agenda.”