At least five health workers including four women, who were on an anti-polio vaccination drive, were killed in Pakistan on Tuesday.

Karachi, Dec 18/Nationalturk – The unknown assailants killed five health workers including four women, who were on an anti-polio vaccination drive, in four separate attacks in Pakistan on Tuesday.

Pakistani security officials said the first incident took place in Karachi’s Landhi area in Sindh province, where suspected Taliban militants fired on a polio team, killing two female members.

They said the second incident occurred in Raja Tanvir Colony in Karachi’s Orangi Town area. “The gunmen attacked a polio team, killing a female worker and critically injuring her male associate. The injured health worker was referred to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to injuries”.

The officials said the third attack on polio team took place in Mochko area’s Mohammad Khan Colony. “A female worker was killed and male worker injured in the attack”.

A senior police official said two attackers on a motorbike fired on two sisters involved in vaccination drive in Mathra suburb of Peshawar. “One of the female health worker was killed and another critically injured in the attack. The injured has been hospitalised”.

According to media reports, all of the victims were Pakistanis working with a UN-backed programme to eradicate polio, which attacks the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis within hours of infection.

The Health minister of Pakistani’s Sindh province, Sagheer Ahmed said he has ordered a halt to anti-polio drive in Karachi city following the attack on health workers. “The government had told 24,000 polio workers that anti-polio drive has been suspended in the province for time being”.

Pakistan one of three countries, where polio remains endemic

Pakistan is one of the three countries where polio disease remains endemic. The other two countries are Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Earlier in July this year, WHO, a partner in Pakistan government efforts to eradicate the disease, suspended vaccination activities in part of country following attacks on health workers’.

The Pakistan Taliban is against polio vaccination and had claimed that health workers are acting as spies for the US and the vaccine itself causes harm. News reports of CIA’s fake vaccination campaign during search for Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan has further strengthened these misconceptions.

 

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Faiz Ahmad / NationalTurk Pakistan News

 

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