Protests in Gwadar blame China for water and food shortage

The protests are part of a growing backlash against China's multibillion-dollar belt and road projects in the country, The Guardian reported. 

This week, demonstrators, including fishers and other local workers, blocked the roads in Gwadar, a coastal town in Balochistan. 

They burnt tyres, chanted slogans and shut down the city to demand water and electricity and a stop to Chinese trawlers illegally fishing in the nearby waters and then taking the catch to China. 

Two people were injured when the authorities cracked down on the protesters. 

"We have been protesting and rallying against the Chinese trawlers, and shortage of water and electricity for over a month now. But the government never paid heed to our demands. We had to observe a complete shutdown strike and we were attacked by the district administration," said Faiz Nigori, a local political worker. 

The protests are part of a growing discontent with China's presence in Gwadar, whose port is an integral part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project (CPEC), in which China has invested billions in infrastructure projects in Pakistan. 

Under the project, Pakistan surrendered the Gwadar port to a Chinese-backed multinational corporation for a lease of 40 years. It is part of China's mammoth belt and road initiative, which stretches across 70 countries to give China a clear trade route from east Asia to Europe. 

The Pakistan government accepted China's investment in the hope that it would help boost the country's ailing economy. But Balochistan is home to a long-running violent insurgency, and China's presence in Gwadar has been the cause of much social unrest, leading to great anti-Chinese sentiments, the report said. 

It has also given a fillip to Baloch militant insurgent groups, who have carried out terrorist attacks in protest at CPEC projects. However, there are signs that resentment at belt and road projects is growing across the country. 

Nine Chinese workers were killed last month when a vehicle laden with explosives and driven by a suicide attacker rammed a convoy heading out to work on the Dasu dam, another flagship CPEC project. 

China's ambassador to Pakistan was also targeted in a terrorist attack at his hotel in April, though he was not hurt. 

Yet, in the years since China was granted a lease on Gwadar port, no work has begun on any such projects and instead the locals say that China's presence is undermining their livelihoods and creating food shortages by allowing Chinese fishing boats to illegally fish in Pakistan's waters around the port. 

Nigori said that when the Chinese started developing the Gwadar port, Pakistani officials claimed that the port city would become the Singapore of Pakistan. 

"But today, we don't have water, electricity and Chinese trawlers are illegally fishing at our coast. We just want our basic rights," he said. 

Mir Sher Baz Khetran, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad, said that such protests could prove very destabilising for China's presence in Pakistan. 

"If there is no trickle-down of development projects under CPEC, it will strengthen the insurgents' narrative of exploitation of resources of Balochistan," he said. 

Last month, Pakistan had detained five Chinese trawlers on suspicion of illegal fishing, not far from the Gwadar port. 

Khudadad Waju, the president of the fisherfolk alliance in Gwadar, said that it had sent a team of local fishers to examine the fish captured and they confirmed that "the fish were caught near Gwadar". 

However, Chinese authorities denied that the detained Chinese trawlers were illegally fishing and claimed instead that they were sheltering from a storm. 

Akbar Askani, the minister for fisheries for the Balochistan state government, alleged that the central government, which has close ties with China, was granting Chinese vessels licences to fish in the seas around Gwadar, despite the cost to the local community.