Khyber Agency - Tribesmen on Monday took out rallies on Torkham and Chaman borders with Afghanistan against US President Donald Trump for accusing Pakistan of harbouring “agents of chaos”.
Scores of Khyber Agency residents, holding Pakistani flags and banners inscribed with anti-US slogans, marched to the Torkham border. Chieftains, political workers, civil society activists and students from three tehsils of the agency participated in the protest.
Condemning Trump’s irresponsible remarks, local leaders Malik Darya Khan, Malik Waris Khan Afridi, Maulana Shoaib, Shahid Shinwari and Malik Dauran counted Pakistan’s feats in the war on terror.
Urging the Afghans to pressurise their rulers not to let anyone use their soil against Pakistan, they said: “Trump is holding Pakistan responsible for the US failure in Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, Karak traders took out a rally against Trump. Anjuman-e-Tajiran Karak President Gul Razi Khan Khattak led the rally that started from Peer Odeen Shah Mosque and culminated at Saddam Chowk where they blocked Karak-Bannu Road for traffic.
Other notables, Iqbal Khattak and JUI-F leader Hafiz Ibn-e-Ameen, took swipe at the US for blaming its failure in Afghanistan on Pakistan.
The procession turned into a big public gathering at Saddam Chowk after passing through different parts of the city. The protesters raised slogans against the US president.
The speakers slammed the US for giving greater role to India in Afghanistan and called upon the government to sever ties with Washington.
They recalled the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in the war on terror and regretted that the services offered by Pakistan in this regard were not duly acknowledged by the US. They said that Pakistan served as a frontline state in the war on terror for two decades and suffered a lot economically and socially. They demanded that Pakistan must review its policy on the war on terror. They also burned effigies of Trump during the demonstration.
AGENCIES ADD: Pictures have emerged of an effigy of President Trump engulfed in flames as the cheering crowd hoists Pakistani flags in the air.
Other demonstrators punched the air and held up placards reading, “US President Donald Trump (is) stupid.” A large number of Pakistani Sikhs also participated in the rally. The decision to hold the rally was taken at a jirga (council) of tribal elders on Sunday.
Pakistan has already postponed the visit by a US diplomat who was due to arrive here on Monday, a week after President Donald Trump publicly upbraided Islamabad for ‘harbouring’ militants attacking US and Afghan troops.
The visit of Alice Wells, acting assistant Secretary of State for South and Asian Affairs, scheduled for Monday, would have been the first high-profile visit by a U.S. official since Trump's Afghan policy speech on August 21.
Meanwhile, the Bab-i-Pakistan Gate on the Pak-Afghan Border at Torkham has been closed for all types of movement. Sources said that border closure came as a pre-emptive step before the rally.
A similar protest was held in Chaman, Balochistan, where various political parties, tribesmen and members of the civil society gathered near the Pak-Afghan border to voice their anger over the US president’s speech.
A protest rally was also taken out in Balochistan’s Kohlu area, where tribesmen passed through the city and shouted anti-US slogans.
In Sibi, tribesmen, members of civil society and political party workers also took to the streets to condemn the US president’s stance against Pakistan, while vowing to defend the country against any external threats.
Waving national flags, the protesters marched through various roads of the city and raised slogans against Trump.
Trump accused Pakistan of harbouring "agents of chaos" and providing safe havens to militant groups waging an insurgency against a US-backed government in Kabul.
Pakistani officials responded by saying the US should not "scapegoat" Pakistan and accused the American military of failing to eliminate militant sanctuaries inside Afghanistan.