Two volunteers who were assisting in a polio immunization campaign were shot to death on Sunday in the northeastern district of Swabi, the police said.
The incident occurred in the northeast fringes of the district in the hilly Pebani village, when the two volunteers, one a local schoolteacher were killed by two gunmen, the district police officer, Dr. Mian Saeed said.
“The gunmen were on foot. They shot dead the two workers from close range and escaped”, he said. “Four suspects have been rounded up for questioning.”
This is the second attack on polio workers in the district. A police constable accompanying the polio team was killed in January. Polio teams have come under attacks from militants, who believe that polio vaccination goes against Islamic law.
But the attacks escalated after it was revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency had used fake teams to collect blood samples from a compound in the northern district of Abbottabad, inhibited by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The government decided to provide police escort to polio teams after growing number of attacks but there is no evidence if the security measure has worked. Increasingly, health workers are refusing to take police escort, fearing the police presence could expose them further to threats.
“We asked the health workers to take police escort but they refused,” “, Dr. Saeed said.. “Since they were locals, probably they were confident that they could carry out their task without police escort.”
“We are considering to ask health workers to carry weapons with them. We can issue them weapon permits”, he said.
The district head of the immunization program said he was not aware of the police had provided security escort to the teams. " I don’t know if there was police escort but I do think it would be impossible to carry out vaccination in such circumstances”, said Dr. Muhammad Yaqub, head of the district immunization program..
Sunday, June 16, 2013
2 Polio Workers Killed in Pakistan
Two volunteers who were assisting in a polio immunization campaign were shot to death on Sunday in the northeastern district of Swabi, the police said.
The incident occurred in the northeast fringes of the district in the hilly Pebani village, when the two volunteers, one a local schoolteacher were killed by two gunmen, the district police officer, Dr. Mian Saeed said.
“The gunmen were on foot. They shot dead the two workers from close range and escaped”, he said. “Four suspects have been rounded up for questioning.”
This is the second attack on polio workers in the district. A police constable accompanying the polio team was killed in January. Polio teams have come under attacks from militants, who believe that polio vaccination goes against Islamic law.
But the attacks escalated after it was revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency had used fake teams to collect blood samples from a compound in the northern district of Abbottabad, inhibited by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The government decided to provide police escort to polio teams after growing number of attacks but there is no evidence if the security measure has worked. Increasingly, health workers are refusing to take police escort, fearing the police presence could expose them further to threats.
“We asked the health workers to take police escort but they refused,” “, Dr. Saeed said.. “Since they were locals, probably they were confident that they could carry out their task without police escort.”
“We are considering to ask health workers to carry weapons with them. We can issue them weapon permits”, he said.
The district head of the immunization program said he was not aware of the police had provided security escort to the teams. " I don’t know if there was police escort but I do think it would be impossible to carry out vaccination in such circumstances”, said Dr. Muhammad Yaqub, head of the district immunization program..
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