Checkposts set up to defend CPEC

 Thousands of army, police personnel deployed

GWADAR: A heavy police presence, guarded convoys, many checkposts and troop reinforcements have turned parts of Gwadar into a fortress, as part of measures seeks to defend the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Securing the planned $46 billion economic corridor of roads, railways and pipelines from northwest China to Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast is a huge challenge in a country where militants and separatist gunmen are a constant menace.

The armed forces and interior ministry have sent hundreds of extra soldiers and police to Gwadar, the hub of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and more are on their way.“Soon we’ll start hiring 700-800 police to be part of a separate security unit dedicated to Chinese security, and at a later stage a new security division would be formed,” Jafer Khan, Regional Police Officer in Gwadar, said.

A senior security official in the town of around 100,000 people said a further 400-500 soldiers had been recruited as a temporary measure to protect the Chinese nationals.On a recent visit, an SUV carrying Chinese visitors was escorted by two police cars and an army vehicle, while police blocked traffic at every crossroad along the route. It was not clear who the passengers were.

Keeping foreign workers and executives safe in Gwadar, which has expanded significantly over the last 15 years largely thanks to Chinese investment, is relatively straightforward.The same cannot be said of the corridor as a whole. Its western branch passes through the Balochistan province.

The main responsibility for securing the corridor, vital to Pakistan’s long-term prosperity, lies with a new army division established in the last few months and numbering an estimated 13,000 troops.

The Ministry of Planning and Development does not yet have specific estimates on how many jobs the CPEC will create in Pakistan, although officials believe the project could generate hundreds of billions of dollars for the economy over the long term.

Some of the police, army and paramilitary reinforcements deployed in the last year have been stop-gap measures while the new Special Security Division builds to full strength.Enhanced security goes beyond Gwadar and across Balochistan, which sits on substantial deposits of untapped natural gas.

“We have tightened our security in those areas where the corridor is supposed to pass. We cannot allow Pakistan’s economic backbone to be held hostage,” Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti, the provincial home minister, said.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif, who launched a prolonged assault on militants after Taliban gunmen massacred 134 pupils at a school in Peshawar in late 2014, expressed the hope of a sharp fall in violence nationwide and it would benefit the CPEC.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said progress so far on the corridor was “generally speaking, quite smooth”.“The Pakistani government has done a great deal of work to protect the security of Chinese organisations and citizens. China is deeply thankful for this,” Lu added.