Jalalabad, December 30: Protesters took to the streets in Afghanistan today, burning an effigy of the US president and shouting “death to Obama” to slam civilian deaths during Western military operations.
Hundreds of university students blocked main roads in Jalalabad, capital of eastern Nangahar province, to protest the alleged deaths of 10 civilians, mostly school children, in a Western military operation on Saturday.
“The government must prevent such unilateral operations otherwise we will take guns instead of pens and fight against them (foreign forces),” students from the University of Nangahar’s education faculty said in a statement.
Marching through the main street of Jalalabad, the students chanted “death to Obama” and “death to foreign forces”, witnesses said.
The protesters torched a US flag and an effigy of US President Barack Obama in a public square in central Jalalabad, before dispersing.
“Our demonstration is against those foreigners who have come to our country,” Safiullah Aminzai, a student organiser, said to a news agency.
“They have not brought democracy to Afghanistan but they are killing our religious scholars and children,” he added.
—Agencies