EFL
The kidnapping of two Chinese engineers working in an irrigation project in South Waziristan in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan by a group of pro-Osama bin Laden jihadi terrorists last week and the death of one of them on October 13, 2004, during a rescue operation mounted by the US-trained Special Services Group, the parent Army unit of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, draws attention once again to the growing threat to Chinese lives and interests in Pakistan from jihadi terrorists belonging to the International Islamic Front (IIF) of bin Laden. No official figures of the total number of Chinese engineers and other experts based in Pakistan are available. However, the "Dawn" of Karachi (October 17, 2004) puts their number at a couple of thousand. Reliable and independent sources divide these engineers and other experts into the following three groups: * Those assisting Pakistan in the development of its nuclear and missile capability. They are helping Pakistan in the already commissioned Chashma I nuclear power station, in the designing and construction of the second nuclear power station called Chashma II, and in the running of the production facilities for the extraction of plutonium from spent nuclear fuel and for the assembly and fabrication of the Pakistani versions of the Chinese-designed M-9 and M-11 missiles. Those in this group constitute the largest number.
* Those assisting Pakistan in the construction of a new port at Gwadar in Balochistan, which is expected to reduce Pakistan's dependence on Karachi, presently Pakistan's only major international port and major naval base and in the exploitation of the rich mineral resources of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, such as the Saindak copper ore project in Balochistan.
* Those assisting Pakistan in the economic development of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in which South Waziristan is located and other tribal areas and of the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) bordering the Xinjiang Province of China. They constitute the third largest group. |