Daesh graffiti appears in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Wall-chalking in favour of the terrorist group, Islamic State, or Daesh, surfaced in the suburban areas of the provincial capital on Tuesday. It triggered fresh concerns among the locals.

While realising the sensitivity of the situation, police acted promptly and removed the graffiti written on the Ring Road flyover on Pajaggi Road after its pictures appeared in the media.

People on social media, however, criticised the police for only removing the graffiti instead of finding out as to who was behind it and whether it was a serious threat or some mischievous persons did it.

Locals took pictures and made videos of ‘Daesh’ written in Urdu with red paint on the flyover and shared it with the local media. Police rushed a painter to the area who after removing the graffiti wrote “KP Police Zindabad” on the same place.

A police official confirmed the writing of Daesh on the overheard bridge, but tried to downplay the issue. He said it has been removed, adding. police are investigating to find as to who was behind the wall-chalking.

Peshawar has witnessed hundreds of attacks after the emergence of militants in the provincial capital 12 years back. Peace has returned to the city and rest of the country after many years but such wall-chalking scares the general public.

Previously, the graffiti in favour of the IS appeared in the Nanakpura locality in the limits of the Hashtnagri Police Station in 2014.A couple of other such writings were also seen in different parts of Peshawar during those days. The cops promptly whitewashed the graffiti.

Apart from Peshawar, the wall-chalking in favour of Daesh was witnessed in Bannu, Lahore, Karachi, Khanewal, Taxila, Hyderabad, Multan and many other places in 2014.