A Chinese engineer working in Pakistan was arrested Sunday evening for allegedly making blasphemous remarks during an argument with fellow Pakistani labourers.
Incident
A source told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) that several angry Pakistani labourers gathered at the Chinese work camp on Sunday to attack the unnamed engineer, who is accused of “insulting Allah” during an argument about the slow pace of work during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.
Moreover, as news spread to nearby villages, hundreds of men gathered to block the Karakoram Highway, the sole road connecting Pakistan and China.
A member of Dasu’s local citizen-police liaison committee told the media on that condition of anonymity that the arrest had been made to “avert a serious situation.”
The Chinese national is an employee of the China Gezhouba Group Company and was arrested from a worksite camp at Pakistan’s Dasu hydropower project. He is detained at a police station in the Kohistan region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistani Measures
Police and paramilitary soldiers assigned to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals working in the country attempted to restrain the mob.
In addition, unconfirmed reports claimed that soldiers fired aerial warning shots to prevent a riot.
A Chinese national working on a dam in Khyber-Pakthunkhwa province of Pakistan has been arrested on #blasphemy charges.
— Geeta Mohan گیتا موہن गीता मोहन (@Geeta_Mohan) April 17, 2023
An engineer with China Gezhouba Group Co., he had a heated argument with local staff over long breaks for prayers, slow pace of work during #Ramzan #Ramadan pic.twitter.com/irMIGbB2tA
Protesters dispersed after four hours, once officials assured the community that legal action would be taken against the perpetrator.
Furthermore, the source said that local religious leaders are holding a tribal council on Monday to decide whether they should file a blasphemy complaint — the first step in the prosecution process.
Safety of Chinese Nationals
Security mechanisms for Chinese nationals in Pakistan have been ramped up since July 2021, after an explosion in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province caused a bus to tumble into a ravine, killing 12 people, including nine Chinese nationals.
The New York Times reported that several Chinese passengers on the bus were engineers, surveyors, and mechanical staff working at a China-funded hydroelectric project in Dasu in the Upper Kohistan district.
In response to the Dasu attack, China and Pakistan signed an agreement to broaden their counter-terrorism and security cooperation framework. Furthermore, Ayman Bilal, the Major General of the Pakistani Army, admitted to being tasked by China with ending the freedom movement in Balochistan.
Root of Conflict
The Balochistan Liberation Army argues that the region does not receive its fair share of the revenue from the mineral and petrochemical extraction operations in its region and that the employment opportunities generated by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor are awarded to Chinese nationals.
Balochistan’s residents also think that the project is imperialistic, as the influx of tourism and industrial processes into the region would reduce the ethnic dominance of the Baloch people.