During his visit to China, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met China’s Minister of Public Security, Wang Xiaohong, at the Ministry of Public Security headquarters in Beijing. During the meeting, Pakistan and China decided to establish a Joint Special Security Unit to improve security measures for Chinese citizens in Pakistan and to adopt a joint strategy aimed at enhancing the training and professional capacity of Pakistani personnel for this purpose.
The objective of establishing a Joint Special Security Unit between Pakistan and China is to ensure the protection of Chinese engineers and technical experts associated with China’s mining and other economic projects in Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan. It is important to note that Chinese citizens and engineers have been repeatedly targeted in deadly attacks in Karachi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan. According to data from Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority, between 2021 and December 2024, 20 Chinese citizens were killed and 34 injured in various attacks.
In recent years, attacks on Chinese engineers and technical experts linked to China’s economic and military projects in Balochistan have increased. Fidayeen of the Baloch Liberation Army’s Majeed Brigade have carried out deadly attacks on Chinese citizens in Karachi and various parts of Balochistan. In October 2024, a suicide attack by the Majeed Brigade at Karachi International Airport killed three Chinese engineers and injured several others. Similarly, in November 2025, the Saddo Operational Battalion of the Balochistan Liberation Front carried out a deadly attack on engineers working at Reko Diq and Saindak in Nokundi.
China faces serious security concerns in continuing its economic projects in Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan. To address these concerns, Pakistan and China have established a Joint Special Security Unit. However, despite Pakistan’s security forces having conducted 90,000 intelligence-based operations in Balochistan last year, the intensity of attacks by Baloch pro-independence armed organisations has increased. It is therefore not unlikely that even after the establishment of the Joint Special Security Unit, attacks on projects described as exploitative by China’s critics will continue.