Pakistan has decided to convert Gwadar port city into an open jail by fencing the areas around it. The decision came following a recent visit by the Chinese Defence Minister.
In doing so, Islamabad has adopted an age-old Chinese tactic of securing a region through fencing as even the Great Wall of China was built with a similar intention.
The proposed fencing is modeled on the lines of similar measures by the Chinese government in villages in Tibet and Xinxiang and is aimed at securing the Chinese investments in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that faces threat from Baloch insurgents.
The Chinese Government has fenced many of the villages in Tibet and converted them into open jails as prior permission is required to get in or out of these villages by the authorities there.
The fenced areas in Gawadar city will be put under curfew when it faces a heightened security threat and the security agencies there will be able to easily clamp curfew and enforce a crackdown against the Balochs. The move to fence the Gwadar will ensure segregation of the port city from other adjoining areas inhabited by the Balochs who often enter the city for various activities, expert tracking the development in the region said.
The Gwadar port city is connected to China via a six-lane highway and a gas pipeline which Beijing apprehends will be hit by the Baloch insurgents.
The Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe has signed an agreement with his Pak to deploy 20,000 personnel of Pakistan’s Frontier Corps to secure the highway and the pipeline between the two countries.
The Frontier Corps which largely operated with archaic means like batons (lathis) and obsolete weapons is likely to be weaponized in a modern manner with total funding from Beijing, they said.
Assessments suggest the Balochs are likely to target more Chinese convoys as they will be free from factoring in negotiations with the Pak authorities to free captured Chinese engineers and technicians in a bargain for money which was the practice till now.