Gunmen shot dead a policeman guarding health workers as Pakistan began another nationwide vaccination drive.
The policeman named Mohammad Sarfraz was shot dead in the Bajur region of the country's north west on the first day of a campaign to vaccinate 39 million children under 5.
Anwarul Haq, a local official, told Associated Press that suspects had been seized after the killing in the village of Badam.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but polio workers have in the past been targeted by militants claiming drops to immunise children against the crippling disease are in fact a Western conspiracy.
Scores of police and health workers were killed on polio duty earlier in the decade, but security has improved significantly since Pakistan's military began operations to clear the Taliban from the border regions.
Suspicion against the drops has also been cut by an education campaign and the use of locally-hired female health workers.
Pakistan along with Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries where polio remains endemic. Only four cases have been found in Pakistan this year, leaving officials to hope they are on the brink of eradicating the disease.
But Afghanistan's vaccinators are struggling to reach parts of the country in the face of insurgent violence meaning the disease can still spread between the neighbours.
Afghanistan last week reported its 14th case this year, which had left a 14-month-old boy paralysed near Kandahar.
Dr Ferozuddin Feroz, minister for public health, said: “Another young boy has been needlessly paralysed by polio in Kandahar.
“This should never have happened. Polio is serious and has lifelong consequences, but the virus can be eliminated from our country. The only way to do this is to repeatedly vaccinate every child.
“I urge parents to learn the facts about the vaccine and ensure their child is protected from permanent paralysis.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/25/polio-guard-shot-dead-pakistan-first-day-new-vaccination-drive/
No comments:
Post a Comment