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Two killed in attack on Pakistan polio vaccination security team
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dec 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Gunmen killed at least two
policemen in an attack on a polio vaccination security team in northwest
Pakistan on Wednesday, the latest setback in the nation’s campaign to
eradicate the disease.
The personnel were part of a nationwide anti-polio drive launched this
week, aiming to inoculate tens of millions of children in Pakistan — one of
only two countries where the crippling disease remains endemic.
Two gunmen on a motorcycle carried out the attack in the Lal Qila area of
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan, as police were
gathering at a health centre before heading out with polio vaccinators, said
police official Arif Shahbaz.
“The vaccinators were unhurt,” added Shahbaz. Another police officer
confirmed the incident and the toll.
The attack comes during a devastating year in Pakistan’s long fight
against the disease, with at least 104 cases reported in 2019 so far.
Last year, just 12 cases were reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s killings,
but the Pakistani Taliban and other militants have targeted polio vaccinators
in the past.
Vaccination campaigns have faced stubborn resistance for years in
Pakistan, with many refusing to have their children inoculated because of
misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Islamist opposition to all forms of inoculation grew after the CIA
organised a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al Qaeda’s former
leader Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
But as Pakistan tries to reach its goal of eliminating polio from its
territory, a new challenge has emerged in the form of a growing global
movement against vaccinations.
Thea phenomenon has attracted adherents worldwide, fuelled by medically
baseless claims and proliferated by social media resulting in a resurgence of
once-eradicated, highly-contagious diseases.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1548 hrs