Pakistan is raising a security force to protect Chinese nationals

Lahore: Efforts are underway in Pakistan to prepare a special force that's only task would be to protect Chinese nationals in the country.

The force would have a strength of 4,000 personnel and will safeguard Chinese nationals working at various projects in Punjab province.

Chinese engineers and workers working on the strategic USD 46 billion economic corridor project would also be covered by this security force.

As of now, more than 17,000 security personnel have been pulled from the Army and other security forces to provide foolproof security to Chinese nationals working across Pakistan on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

The CPEC would provide China access to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.

The ambitious 3,000-kilometre CPEC project was launched last year to link western China to southern Pakistan through a network of roads, railways and pipelines.

"We are recruiting over 4,000 security personnel for the protection of Chinese nationals working at various projects in Punjab," Inspector General of Punjab Police Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera said.

"The force will be trained and equipped to perform its duty to the best of its ability," he stated.

"The training of new force members has begun and will be completed within six months. The first batch of the force will pass out on September 15 and deployed at 16 projects for the security of Chinese," the IGP added.