Pakistan must beef up the security of Chinese laborers working for the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as opposing countries may use "extreme means" to sabotage the ambitious project, the state-run Chinese daily Global Times warned on Tuesday.

"The corridor's construction worries Pakistan's domestic and foreign opposition groups," the state-run newspaper said. "CPEC is seeing intensifying opposition from both home and abroad, which, on the other hand, shows that its construction has achieved major progress that gets on the nerves of opposition groups."

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The Global Times article comes just weeks after a Chinese engineer was injured in a roadside blast in Pakistan's financial capital Karachi. The attack was claimed by a small group 'Sindhudesh Revolutionary Part,' which vowed to derail the project and warned China against looting Sindh's natural resources.      

The Chinese daily said that the attack on the Chinese engineer may just be a beginning, adding that China and Pakistan must seriously take a note of the incident.

The article mentions the US and Japan. However, it clearly refrains from directly mentioning India. New Delhi has registered protest over the CPEC project with Beijing and Islamabad as the corridor passes through Pakistani Occupied Kashmir (POK).    

Kashmir has been the main bone of contention between India and Pakistan since 1947 - the year when both countries achieved independence. Both countries have fought three wars to resolve the dispute over the Himalayan region.

Earlier this year, the Indian army claimed that it had spotted PLA troops in POK. India's strategic experts said that PLA army may have arrived in POK to provide security to Chinese and Pakistani workers.

Following the report, New Delhi called on China to stop all its construction activities in POK. However, China chose to overlook New Delhi's concerns and said it was committed to complete all infrastructure projects in Pakistan.  

India has always been critical of the CPEC and Gwadar Port projects. New Delhi claims that China is aiming to increase its presence in the Indian subcontinent through these infrastructure projects.

Tagschina, Pakistan and China, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China and India