Once billed as symbol of Sino-Pakistan friendship, the Karakoram Highway, which connects China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region with nothern Pakistan, is now developing into a source of trouble between the two countries.
The highway, a vital trade route, is turning into a terror link for Islamist movements in western China. Beijing has accused terrorist training camps based in Pakistan of sponsoring attacks and supporting separatist Uighurs in Xinjiang.
The construction of the 800-mile highway was the outcome of a trade deal signed between Pakistan and China in1963. Its construction took 12 years (1966 to 1978) and was of immense geopolitical, economic and military importance. The route passes through the rough terrain of Pakistan’s northern areas, known as Gilgit-Baltistan, connecting it to the ancient silk route, which runs approximately 1,300 km from Kashgar, a city in Xinjiang province, to Havelian in the Abbottabad district of Pakistan. The silk route links China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.
