Gunmen Kill Anti-Polio Workers in Attacks in Pakistan

Gunmen killed five women and a man on Tuesday in separate attacks on workers in a national drive to eradicate polio in Pakistan, officials said. The attacks forced health officials to temporarily suspend the anti-polio drive in Karachi, the country’s most populous and most volatile city. Saghir Ahmed, the health minister for southern Sindh Province, was quoted as saying that he had ordered an immediate halt to the vaccination campaign in Karachi. At least 24,000 aid workers were taking part in the vaccination campaign in the city. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Taliban insurgents have repeatedly vowed to target anti-polio workers, accusing them of being spies. That perception was reinforced after 2011 raid by American forces that killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbotabad. American officials have said that a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, had been running a phony hepatitis B vaccination program as a ruse to obtain DNA evidence from members of Bin Laden's family in the Abbottabad compound. Dr. Afridi was arrested by Pakistani authorities and sentenced to 33 years in prison. Since then, Taliban insurgents, who are based in the country’s tribal regions, straddling the border with Afghanistan, have increased their opposition and issued religious edicts against vaccination campaigns, claiming that United States runs a spy network under the guise of vaccination programs. Pakistan is one of just three countries where polio is still endemic, accounting for 198 new cases last year — the highest rate in the world, followed by Afghanistan and Nigeria. Three national anti-polio campaigns were begun on Monday. Officials were expecting a backlash by militants but the extent and scale of the attacks Tuesday caught the government by surprise. In the attacks in Karachi on Tuesday, three teams of health volunteers were targeted in poor neighborhoods: Landhi, Orangi Town and Baldia Town. Two female aid workers were killed in an attack in Landhi, according to reports in local news media. In Orangi Town, unknown gunmen opened fire on a health team, killing one woman and a male volunteer. Another female worker was killed in Baldia Town, a neighborhood in Karachi. In the northwestern city of Peshawar, gunmen attacked two sisters who had volunteered for the polio vaccine drive, killing one.