Recently, during the China-Pakistan “Warrior-8” joint anti-terrorism exercise, the Pakistani military reported a victory: while conducting an intelligence operation in the Zhob district in southwestern Balochistan, they successfully ambushed and wiped out a Baloch death squad. This incident has attracted much attention and speculation, especially the discussion about whether the People’s Liberation Army was directly involved.
According to the annual plan and the consensus between the Chinese and Pakistani militaries, the Western Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army sent troops to Pakistan to carry out the “Warrior-8” joint anti-terrorism exercise. At 11:00 local time on November 20, the opening ceremony was held at the Pakistan National Counter-Terrorism Training Center in Pabbi, Pakistan. The two sides will carry out multi-subject joint anti-terrorism exercises in Pakistan. China sent heavy equipment such as explosion-proof armored vehicles, Mi-171 helicopters and Z-10, as well as unmanned combat equipment such as drones and mechanical dogs. Because the PLA’s combat equipment was not seen at the scene, and the Pakistani military’s actions this time, from all indications, have no strong connection with the China-Pakistan joint anti-terrorism exercise, the two are different actions carried out in parallel.
In the process of combating the Baloch militants, the Pakistani military has long been troubled by intelligence problems and has often been passive in the past. The Baloch militants frequently ambushed Pakistani border patrol vehicles, attacked checkpoints and even police stations, and launched anti-tank missiles to attack military targets. The key to the successful ambush this time was a breakthrough in intelligence work. Some people believe that it is more likely that China provided Pakistan with intelligence support such as drone reconnaissance, satellites, and electronic reconnaissance, and then the Pakistani counter-terrorism forces carried out the final ambush mission. China’s foreign policy has always insisted on not interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, and the possibility of directly participating in military operations abroad is very small. According to the anti-terrorism cooperation agreement reached between China and Pakistan, China is mainly committed to helping Pakistan improve its anti-terrorism capabilities, and the two sides have in-depth cooperation in intelligence. This is a more reasonable explanation that conforms to the logic of diplomatic and military cooperation between the two sides.
According to public information from the Pakistani military, only one 32-year-old soldier of the Pakistani SSG Special Operations Force was killed in this operation, but 15 Baloch militants were successfully killed and a large number of weapons, ammunition and explosives were seized. Judging from the situation of the militants who were killed, none of them were missing arms or legs, and they were not killed by shells, nor were they injured in the head and limbs. All were hit in the chest. This shows that Pakistan did not send fighters to bomb, artillery bombard, or carry out intensive fire and strafing. It is very likely that the Pakistani special forces snipers used reconnaissance drones to accurately lock targets at low altitudes to guide Pakistani special forces snipers to carry out precise sniping, or used advanced equipment such as unmanned combat robots to achieve efficient combat results.
The victory of this operation is just the beginning of Pakistan’s anti-terrorism battle. With the overthrow of the Bashar regime in Syria, the anti-terrorism situation in the Middle East and Central Asia has become increasingly severe, and there may be an outflow of terrorists. There are still a large number of Pakistani TTP members hiding in Afghanistan, who together with the Baloch militants pose a threat to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Gwadar Port. And through strong China-Pakistan cooperation in anti-terrorism operations, ensuring the security of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is an important guarantee for China’s “Belt and Road” strategy.
In general, it is one thing for China and Pakistan to cooperate in anti-terrorism, but it is another thing to say that the PLA is directly involved in anti-terrorism operations in Pakistan. Our country’s foreign policy is not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. For some exaggerated statements, netizens must keep a cool head.