Massive protests erupted in Pakistan’s port city of Gwadar against unnecessary checkpoints, severe shortages of water and electricity and livelihood threats from illegal fishing, the country’s growing backlash against China’s multi-billion-dollar belt and road projects. are gone.
Protests organized by activists of some political parties, civil rights activists, fishermen and concerned citizens have been going on for a week at Wai Chowk on Port Road in the coastal city of Gwadar in Pakistan’s restive southwest Balochistan province.
Jang newspaper reported on Sunday that the protesters are demanding the removal of unnecessary security checkpoints, availability of drinking water and electricity, removal of large fishing boats from the Makran coast and the opening of the border with Iran from Panjgur to Gwadar.
Maulana Hidayat ur Rehman, the head of the ‘Give Gwadar’ rally, said the protest would continue till their demands were met and added that the government was not serious about resolving the problems of the local people living in the area.
Rahman has strongly criticized the government in the past for failing to address the basic problems of the people of Gwadar.
“We are demanding the rights of Gwadar, which were usurped by the rulers and the people were deprived of even basic necessities. The fishermen were not able to earn their livelihood as big trawlers were allowed for fishing on the Makran coast,” he had said at a public meeting last month.
Rahman said that despite the formation of Gwadar Deep Sea Port, the people of the city are still unemployed and the government has not done anything about it.
The Express Tribune quoted him as saying, “It is an insult to the sons of the soil when they are stopped at checkpoints and questioned about their whereabouts.”
The protests are part of growing discontent with China’s presence in Gwadar, whose port is an integral part of China’s multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) flagship project, the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project (CPEC). is the organ. ,
India has protested against China over CPEC as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The massive infrastructure project connects China’s Xinjiang province with the Gwadar port in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
Gwadar port has long been portrayed as the jewel in the CPEC crown, but in the process, the city has become a symbol of a security state.
The priorities of the authorities are formulated to secure the port and its ancillary interests; The welfare of the people to whom this area is home matters little. The Dawn newspaper reported on Friday that the port was not a harbinger of an economic boom, but the opposite.
Existing privatization has deepened; The movement of people by the security forces is restricted and their movements are subjected to undue question marks. Many say that they are made to feel like strangers in their own land.
Adding to the misery of a large number of fishermen among the public, there are complaints that the government has issued licenses to Chinese trawlers to fish in waters off the coast. Their smaller boats cannot possibly compete, resulting in their livelihood being squeezed. It is the petri dish of discontent that has sparked recent protests, the added.
Balochistan is home to a long-running violent insurgency, and China’s presence in Gwadar has caused much social unrest and has given rise to anti-Chinese sentiment.
It has also promoted Baloch extremist insurgent groups, which have carried out terrorist attacks in protest against CPEC projects.
In August this year, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy carrying Chinese personnel on the Gwadar East Bay Expressway project, injuring a Chinese and killing two local children.
Following the incident, the Chinese embassy asked the Pakistan government to beef up security for the CPEC projects and the Chinese personnel working on them.
In October last year, gunmen ambushed a convoy of vehicles from Gwadar to Karachi, killing at least 14 people near Ormara on the coastal highway, and in 2019, five people, including a Pakistani Navy jawan, attacked luxury. were killed in Pearl Continental Hotel in Gwadar.
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