New Delhi: A recently uploaded video over surfacing on social media shows a massive fight between Chinese nationals and Pakistani policemen at one of the sites of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC. The fight which soon became a common one happened earlier this week in Khanewal area of Pakistan’s Punjab province. The fight was a result after the Chinese nationals thrashed the Pakistani police, who were seen running to cover themselves. Reports in the Pakistani media suggest that the Chinese nationals in an effort to retaliate bounced back after they were bullied by the policemen, who weren’t allowing them to leave their camp.
The group of Chinese people, most of whom belong to the category of engineers, are in Pakistan to help in the construction of a section of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, very well known by its acronym CPEC. The Chinese engineers were in charge in carrying out construction work of the ‘M4 Motorway’, which is a infact a project within the CPEC umbrella.
According to some new agencies, Pakistan’s Dawn News reported that a fight 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 uploaded by Pakistan’s Dawn News on YouTube shows a handful of Chinese workers thrashing Pakistani policemen and a few locals. The policemen and locals present there can be seen running for cover. Some of the locals present there can be seen fleeing in a white coloured sedan. Another Chinese worker can also be seen making a video on his mobile phone.
In another private video uploaded on YouTube showed a Chinese national standing on the bonnet of a police van, while some others try hard to forcibly open the door of the car, which the policemen seem to have already locked from inside. Though the video is uploaded privately, it is courtesy Pakistan’s ‘Express News’ whose logo can be seen on the video.
As per the news inputs from agencies, some 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 head or DPO Rizwan Umar Gondal sometime later said that he conducted an investigation, after which he concluded that “the Chinese workers were responsible” for Wednesday’s fight. The senior police officer has recommended the deportation of the five Chinese officials involved in the fight which includes the ‘Country Project Manager’ of the foreign company. Mr Gondal also requested the 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 being constructed in Pakistan, Balochistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir that will connect China’s Xinjiang province with Balochistan’s Gwadar port.
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