PESHAWAR: Rallies were taken out in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to protest US President Donald Trump’s accusations against Pakistan of insincerity and duplicity in the fight against terrorism.

The Difa-i-Pakistan Council (DPC), a syndicate of religious groups, had given the call for the protest.

In Peshawar, the main rally was staged from Fawara Chowk to outside the Peshawar Press Club.

Speakers insist no peace in region unless US-led allied forces leave Afghanistan

Led by DPC leaders Ghazi Inamullah, Hafiz Samiullah, Haji Mohammad Iqbal and Maulana Yousuf Shah, the participants held banners and flags inscribed with anti-US slogans and shouted slogans against Trump and torched his effigy.

The speakers said the entire Pakistani nation was outraged by the US president for launching a diatribe against Pakistan while announcing his administration’s Afghan policy.

They said Pakistan had laid down at least 60,000 lives, including those of the personnel of law-enforcement agencies, and suffered huge financial losses during the war on terrorism but even then, the US president spoke against it.

The speakers said the US was criticising Pakistan to please India, which couldn’t see its western neighbour progress, especially after the launch of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.

They warned that the entire Pakistani nation stood by the Pakistan Army and would foil all conspiracies and actions against the country.

The speakers said peace won’t return to the region unless the US-led allied forces left Afghanistan.

They urged the federal government to issue an unambiguous policy statement against Trump’s diatribe telling the US that Pakistan was a sovereign state and therefore, threats couldn’t intimidate or pressure it.

The Jamaat-i-Islami and Majlis Wahdat Muslimeen also took out separate rallies against the US president over anti-Pakistan remarks.

In the JI demonstration led by Haji Sher Zaman, the participants shouted anti-US slogans.

JI provincial chief Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said his party had launched the ‘Pakistan Zindabad and America Murdabad’ campaign against the US in which one million youths from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas were ready to take part.

The MWM protest was held outside the press club, where leaders of the movement, including Arshad Haideri and Salamat Ali Jafri, said the US forces faced defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan and that its anti-Pakistan stand in the war against terrorism showed its frustration in that respect.

They warned the US against attacking Pakistan and said Pakistanis would even render their lives to safeguard the country.

Also in the day, Qaumi Watan Party chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan expressed displeasure at the fresh US stand against Pakistan in the war against terrorism and said Pakistan rendered meritorious human and material sacrifices but ironically, the US ignored them and accused Pakistan of insincerity and duplicity in the fight against terrorism.

Addressing a public meeting in Hazar Khawani area of Peshawar, Mr Sherpao said Pakistan’s flawed foreign policy was to blame for the US president’s allegations against the country.

He said Pakistan didn’t have a permanent foreign minister for a long time and therefore, the great sacrifices rendered by its law-enforcement personnel and people were negated by the US.

The QWP chief said Pakistan’s diplomacy had failed to deliver and therefore, the new Afghan policy of the US not only isolated it but also showed Islamabad had lost Washington’s trust. He said Trump’s allegations had put Pakistan in a very awkward position.

Mr Sherpao said political parties had raised the issue many times but the federal government didn’t pay attention to it and thus, causing embarrassment for Pakistan worldwide.

In Nowshera, DPC chief Maulana Samiul Haq demanded the registration of treason cases against the current and former Pakistani rulers for ‘accepting the US slavery and extending support to America’.

“Cases should be registered against retired general Pervez Musharraf and former PM Nawaz Sharif for accepting American slavery, which has caused the current situation for the nation,” he told a rally organised against US President Donald Trump here in Akora Khattak.

Mr Sami insisted that the Afghan government had increased problems for itself by creating room for Indian intelligence agency and others in the country.

“America wants to establish the supremacy of India in the region but we will resist it. America is a friend of India and not Pakistan,” he said.

He said the US had leveled baseless allegations against Pakistan to hide its own defeat in Afghanistan.

He asked Pakistani government not to provide land and air facilities to the US forces based in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued by the Darul Uloom-i-Haqqania, JUI-S chief said the DPC had taken out rallies against Trump across the country, including Peshawar, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rahim Yar Khan, Khaniwal, Khanpoor, Rajanpur, Multan, Bahawalpur, Karachi and Hyderabad.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2017