China 'quietly' wooing Balochistan militants for $60 bn-CPEC infra project

India strongly objects to the route of the corridor, which goes through Pakistan-administered Kashmir

China has been wooing Baloch militants by quietly holding talks with them for over five years in an attempt to protect the $60 billion infrastructure projects it is financing as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), according to a media report.

Pakistan's daily Dawn on Tuesday cited a report by the Financial Times as saying that three people with knowledge of the talks said that Beijing had been in direct contact with militants in Balochistan, where many of the CPEC-related schemes were located.

"The Chinese have quietly made a lot of progress," one Pakistani official said. "Even though separatists occasionally try