The Lal Masjid standoff in Islamabad has now drawn the Chinese government into demanding action. Dawn reported on Thursday that during a visit to Beijing Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao was asked by his Chinese counterpart, Zhou Yongkang, to ensure the safety of Chinese workers in Pakistan. “We hope Pakistan will look into the terrorist attacks at Chinese people and organisations as soon as possible and severely punish the criminals,” Zhou said. The paper explained, “One male and six female Chinese, as well as two Pakistanis, were kidnapped from the acupuncture clinic where they worked in the early hours of Saturday by students from a seminary, before being released later in the day.” Dawn recapped in an editorial the next day earlier attacks on Chinese workers. In 2004 two Chinese engineers working at the Gomal Zam dam site in South Waziristan were abducted by the Abdullah Mahsud group, one of whom died in a commando rescue operation. It noted that Abdullah, a Guantanamo returnee, is still at large. In 2006, three Chinese persons were killed and 13 injured in an ambush in Hub, while in 2004 three were killed in a bomb blast at Gwadar. But the editorial underlined: “The latest incident, however, occurred right in the federal capital and, besides causing diplomatic embarrassment for Pakistan, has led to the flight of a large number of Chinese from Islamabad to Lahore. Some have returned to China.”

In an editorial on Friday, The Daily Times took the opportunity to survey relations with China: “Out of all the relationships Pakistan has with other states, the one with China is the most mundane because it is not based on any intellectual or cultural affinity. It has been a materialistic connection propelled by Pakistan’s hunger for nuclear weapons and delivery systems. The trouble started with China when the Chinese were building the Karakoram Highway in the 1970s. Z.A. Bhutto, the then Pakistani prime minister who sported a Mao cap on his foreign tours, had a hard time cooling down the ideological passions aroused against the Chinese among regional officials of the state of Pakistan. But during the Afghan jihad under General Zia ul Haq, China first began to feel the heat from our religious parties engaged in plans of ‘reconquering’ Muslim areas under Communism.” In recent years, Pervez Musharraf has had to field Beijing’s requests for action against Uighur rebels from China finding shelter on Pakistani territory.

... contd.