PESHAWAR: US President Donald Trump bullying Pakistan has sparked anti-American sentiments in the region as banners and wall chalking appeared in the provincial capital calling the US a ‘big terrorist and rogue’.

Large-size panaflex banners carrying the portraits of Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and US President Trump have been displayed at Amen Chowk opposite the US Consulate office in the upscale garrison of the city.

“USA the biggest terrorist, your war your headache,” read the banners displayed around the Amn Chowk early morning.

The Tajiran (traders) Alliance City Peshawar has displayed the banners.

Besides rallies, Peshawar also sees banners, wall chalking against US

The wall chalking also appeared in different places of the cantonment area. Chalking on a wall on the Mall read, “Pakistan will be the graveyard for America and India.”

The traders association has planned to take out rally in Peshawar on Wednesday.

The anti-America campaign began in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and adjoining tribal areas in the wake of the announcement of President Trump’s Afghanistan strategy in which he said Pakistan was playing a double game by accepting the US aid while giving safe haven to the ‘agents of chaos’, who kill Afghan and Nato troops.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially Peshawar, has a history of showing anti-Americanism, which dates back to 2001 and afterwards when the people staged scores of demonstrations to condemn the US-led military intervention in Afghanistan.

The successive US governments invited the people from different walks of life from Pakistan and spent billions of dollars to do away with the anti-Americanism and win hearts and minds of the people.

Rallies were taken out against the US in different areas of KP and Fata on Monday.

Various political parties and tribal elders had organised protest rallies and demonstrations and condemned statements of the US President and other top functionaries of his administration.

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf organised an anti-America public meeting in Jinnah Park on Tuesday evening.

Information minister Shah Farman and other ruling party leaders addressed the charged workers, who shouted slogans against the US and President Trump.

The venue was decorated with banners with anti-US slogans.

Addressing workers, Mr Farman accused the US of turning Afghanistan into a safe sanctuary of terrorists.

He said over 70,000 Pakistanis, including security personnel, had died in the war against terrorism, while the Americans suffered a small number of casualties.

The minister said Pakistan incurred over $120 billion losses in militancy, while its people were still rendering sacrifices.

“Pakistan is a nuclear power. Those looking for own graves should dare come here,” he said, adding that no power could subjugate Afghanistan.

The minister said British and Russians had suffered the worst defeats in Afghanistan and Americans would face the same.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2017