Terrorists employ new tactics to hit CPEC

ISLAMABAD: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become a major trigger for terrorists, galvanising their movement as they employ new tactics -- including suicide attacks in an escalation that could rattle Beijing, observers say.

A deadly weekend attack by gunmen who stormed a luxury hotel in Gwadar, was the latest high-profile assault linked to the multi-billion dollar CPEC.

CPEC -- part of China’s massive Belt and Road initiative -- seeks to link its western province Xinjiang with Gwadar, giving Beijing valuable access to the Arabian Sea and conferring new roads, ports, and airports on Pakistan. Pakistani authorities routinely term Gwadar, a former fishing village, as "the next Dubai".

There's good reason to believe that the hotel attack spooked Beijing in a big way, given that a major facility was struck in a city that houses one of the crown jewels of CPEC, Kugelman said. The project, he continued, "is a major trigger for Baloch insurgents".