SIALKOT – Citing the recent spree of violence in Gwadar and Mastang, minister for Defence Khawaja Asif said on Sunday that India was continuing its efforts to destabilize Pakistan .
Talking to newsmen, the lawmaker noted that the purpose of the attack carried out in Mastung that left over 25 people dead and killing of labourers in Gwadar was to sabotage the multi-billion dollars China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Asif expressed that by connecting the dots, it was obvious that the violence was intend to hinder progress at a time when the premier Nawaz Sharif was in China along with provincial chief ministers.
It bears mentioning that the current week saw terror revisiting Pakistan as the convoy of deputy chairman Senate Abdul Ghafoor Haideri was attacked in which over 25 people were martyred in Mustang.
Moreover, on Saturday ten workers deployed for construction work on the outskirts of Gwadar, were gunned down by militants.
The incidents took place in the Pishgan and Guns Road area. The victims hailed from city Kandiaro in the Naushahro Feroze District of Sindh.
The latest attack is pivotal in the backdrop of development going on in Gwadar 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.
