GWADAR – The city Kandiaro in the Naushahro Feroze District of Sindh from where the ten labourers who were shot dead in Gwadar was struck with sorrow as soon as their dead bodies arrived.
According to police sources, the workers who were shot dead early Saturday were identified as Bashir Ahmed, Muhammad Asif, Rasool Buksh, Muhammad hakeem, Jaddal, Hazoor Baksh, Abdul Waheed, Muhkam Lakhoo and Korral.
The labourers were killed by unknown attackers in Pushkan and Gunt areas in Gwadar, Balochistan when they were busy in road construction.
It bears mentioning that the latest attack is pivotal in the backdrop of development going on in Gawadar and Pakistan’s burgeoning ties with China.
Gwadar forms the southern Pakistan hub of a $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) of infrastructure and energy projects.
Following the importance of the multi-billion dollars CPEC project, anti-state elements are conspiring against the project as they are unhappy with the development of the Balochistan and Gwadar.
On May 12, a top US National Intelligence Director Daniel Coats warned that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would provide militant groups operating within Pakistan with “additional targets”.
During a Congressional hearing he listed a number of groups that in his opinion pose threat to Pakistan’s internal security.
“The groups we judge will pose the greatest threat to Pakistan’s internal security include Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan, Jamaat ul-Ahrar, Al Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, ISIS-K, Lashkar Jhangvi, and Lashkar-e Jhangvi al-Alami.”
“Anti-Pakistan groups will probably focus more on soft targets. The emerging China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will probably offer militants and terrorists additional targets,” Coats said.