New Delhi: A video has surfaced on social media that shows a massive fight between Chinese nationals and Pakistani policemen at one of the sites of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC. The brawl, which soon became a free-for-all, broke out earlier this week in Khanewal in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The scuffle resulted in the Chinese nationals thrashing the Pakistani police, who were seen running for cover. Reports in the Pakistani media suggest that the Chinese nationals retaliated after they were bullied by the policemen, who weren’t letting them leave their camp.
The group of Chinese nationals, most of whom are engineers, are in Pakistan to construct a section of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, better known by its acronym CPEC. The Chinese engineers were carrying out construction work of the ‘M4 Motorway’, which is a project within the CPEC umbrella.
According to news agency ANI, Pakistan’s Dawn News reported that a scuffle broke out shortly after a heated argument between the Chinese engineers and the Pakistani policemen after the latter prevented the Chinese workers from leaving their camp.
A video shared by Pakistan’s Dawn News on YouTube shows a handful of Chinese workers thrashing Pakistani policemen and a few locals. The policemen and locals can be seen running for cover. Some of the locals can be seen fleeing in a white coloured sedan. A Chinese worker can also be seen making a video on his mobile phone.
Another privately shared video on YouTube showed a Chinese national standing on the bonnet of a police van, while some others try to forcibly open the door of the car, which the policemen seem to have locked from inside. Though the video is privately shared, it is courtesy Pakistan’s ‘Express News’ whose logo can be seen on the video.
According to news agency ANI, reports in the Pakistani media mention a further provocation by the Chinese nationals, who, they allege, cut off electricity supply to the police camp shortly after the fight. The Pakistani police tried to “control the situation” by “locking” the Chinese nationals in small rooms at the camp.
The district police officer or DPO Rizwan Umar Gondal later said that he conducted an investigation, after which he came to a conclusion that “the Chinese workers were responsible” for Wednesday’s brawl. The senior police officer has recommended the deportation of the five Chinese officials, including the ‘Country Project Manager’ of the foreign company. Mr Gondal also appealed to Pakistan’s Punjab government to declare five Chinese people ‘persona non grata’ or person who is not welcome.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC is a network of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction in Pakistan, Balochistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir that will connect China’s Xinjiang province with Balochistan’s Gwadar port.
India has objected to the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which India maintains is part of Jammu and Kashmir, its northernmost state, and therefore Indian territory.
The project is given the name ‘China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’ (CPEC), though Pakistan and China don’t share a border. Pakistan’s only link to China is through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). It is India and Afghanistan which share a border, now cut-off by Pakistan’s forceful occupation of PoK.
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