Pakistan - Polio fight

Pakistan’s battle with polio is proving to be a long and hard one. Not only are cases of poliovirus increasing at an alarming rate within the country, all efforts to reverse this trend are being nipped in the bud. The latest victim of the polio scourge is not someone crippled by the disease but a target of those who wish to eliminate all those combating the virus. A policeman escorting a team of polio vaccination workers on the outskirts of Quetta was shot dead on Wednesday when he was exiting a mosque after saying his afternoon prayers. Armed motorcyclists gunned him down during his short prayer break. The murderers made off, as usual, and now we are one fatality closer to declaring our campaign against the disease a complete failure due to our inability to protect those who are trying to protect our future generations.

No group has come forward yet to claim responsibility for this murder but one does not need to think hard to understand that this is, once again, the handiwork of extremist militants who believe that the vaccinations are an abomination and a tool employed by the west to hurt Muslims. This, of course, is hogwash. The militants do not want any sort of welfare for citizens, preferring that they be helpless in the path of the contagious poliovirus. What is worse is that the government refuses to arise from its slumber and take the militants and this virus head on. Before we were witnessing polio workers being killed whilst on the job and now that they have been provided with minuscule security details, it is the security that is being put down by the terrorists. These workers have to be out in the field, knocking on doors and forcing, at times, reluctant parents to inoculate their children. They are doing this noble job at great risk to their lives just so that our children can have a shot at life. They are sitting ducks for Taliban killers. What needs to be done is to adequately secure those who are escorting these polio workers. They need to be educated about the very real danger that they too are in. This policeman was on a prayer break and was obviously not aware of the threat to his life. These people need to be trained to tackle a shadowy enemy willing to kill in cold blood the noblest of people. We cannot afford to let our focus on the polio drive falter. We have been slapped with travel restrictions by the international community and cannot afford any relaxation in our efforts. We must guard those who are willing to free us of this affliction.