Angered by President Donald Trump’s new war strategy for Afghanistan, hundreds of angry protestors on Monday marched towards the US consulate in the Pakistani port city of Karachi protesting against the recent statements by Trump about Pakistan.
"We wanted to stage a peaceful protest and wanted to go to American consulate to give them a message that Pakistani nation ... committed a mistake by becoming an ally of America, and that our rulers have committed a big mistake by following American plans," said protest organizer Aqeel Musa.
"The protests take place outside American consulate everywhere in the whole world. Most protests in the world take place outside American embassies. But they (police and administration) have deprived us from our basic right. Now we are staging this peaceful sit-in here,” he added.
The protestors were carrying placards bearing pictures of Trump, chanting anti-U.S. slogans in a demonstration organized by a Shi'ite Muslim group Imamia Students Organistaion (ISO).
The protesters later staged a peaceful sit-in after negotiations between police officials and protest leaders.
This comes a few days after President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of harboring "agents of chaos" and providing safe havens to militant groups waging an insurgency against the Afghan government.
Pakistan responded on Thursday by saying the US military itself is failing to eliminate militant sanctuaries inside Afghanistan. The strongly worded reaction came in a policy statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi after a meeting of the civilian and military leadership.
Meanwhile Abbasi told Bloomberg News on Saturday that there has to be a political settlement in Afghanistan and that Trump’s new war strategy will fail.
“From day one we have been saying very clearly the military strategy in Afghanistan has not worked and it will not work, there has to be a political settlement,” Abbasi said.
“We do not intend to allow anybody to fight Afghanistan's battle on Pakistan's soil," Abbasi added.
