Pakistan vows to stand with ally China, defeat terrorism’s aim to ‘drive a wedge’

PM Shehbaz Sharif said a series of rebel attacks in Balochistan province aimed to sabotage Belt and Road Initiative projects

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A charred vehicle after a blast by separatist militants at Kolpur, Balochistan province. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:00pm, 28 Aug 2024Updated: 6:21pm, 28 Aug 2024

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to stamp out terrorism in western Balochistan province following a deadly campaign of rebel attacks that he said was aimed at sabotaging Belt and Road Initiative projects there.

The insurgents’ “nefarious and impure goals are to stop the journey of progress” in Pakistan, Sharif said at a cabinet meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday.

By staging the provincewide attacks, the terrorists wanted to “drive a wedge” between close allies Pakistan and China, he added.

At least 50 civilians and security personnel were killed in about a dozen insurgent attacks in ethnic Baloch majority areas of the province over the weekend. The attacks were timed to coincide with the 17th anniversary of the 2006 assassination of the province’s former chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti by the army after he rebelled against military dictator Pervez Musharraf.

During the attacks, rebels cut off vast, rugged and thinly populated Balochistan – home to the Chinese-operated Arabian Sea port of Gwadar – from the rest of the country by blockading major highways and blowing up railway bridges.

Paramilitary forces’ bases were assaulted by suicide squads while several posts and police stations were overrun.