BALOCHISTAN: Two Chinese nationals were kidnapped by unidentified men from Quetta’s Jinnah Town on Wednesday, according to Quetta DIG.
The police said that the abducted include a husband and wife.
“A Chinese couple has been kidnapped and their personal guard was injured during the incident,” Anwar ul Haq Kakar, a spokesperson for Balochistan, told Reuters.
Armed men pretending to be policemen kidnapped two Chinese language teachers in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, provincial officials said, a rare attack on Chinese nationals that is likely to worry Beijing.
China has pledged to invest $57 billion in Pakistani road, rail and power infrastructure in a flagship project of its vast Belt and Road initiative for a network of modern-day “Silk Road” routes connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.
China’s ambassador to Pakistan and other officials have often urged Islamabad to improve security, especially in the province of Baluchistan, where China is building a new port and funding roads to link its western regions with the Arabian Sea.
Quetta police Chief Razza Cheema said the teachers did not work on the Beijing-funded China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as they did not have guards. Pakistan provides security for all Chinese workers on CPEC projects in Baluchistan.
“Armed men took the couple into custody at gunpoint when they were coming out from the center,” Cheema told Reuters.
Another Chinese woman narrowly evaded the kidnappers outside a language center in Jinnah, on the city’s outskirts, he added.
Pakistan faces pressure to keep Chinese workers safe and reassure Beijing about its vast investments, said Vahaj Ahmed, a research analyst at investment bank Exotix Partners.
But the Quetta kidnappings were unlikely to “put the Chinese interests off track,” he added.
