Multiple attacks on polio teams in Bajaur Agency and Mansehra have resulted in the suspension of the anti Polio campaign in Mansehra.
In Khar, Bajaur Agency yesterday unidentified assailants shot dead one member of a polio team, injuring another.
On Tuesday, lady health workers Kaneez and Sitara and a police constable were killed near an Afghan refugee camp on the outskirts of Mansehra city. The polio team was inoculating children in the refugee camp and surrounding areas when two gunmen opened fire,according to police reports.
Later the same day, the K-P government announced Rs1 million each for the two polio workers slain in Mansehra as compensation.
The ongoing National Immunisation Drive (NID) has been suspended in Mansehra on orders of the K-P government; the NID vaccinates children not only against polio but also eight other preventable diseases.
According to officials at the polio control room in Peshawar, the campaign was initially only temporarily halted in Mansehra following the attack. However, later authorities decided to suspend it.
“Officials, after consulting authorities in the provincial capital, decided to suspend the campaign,” a Peshawar health official said.
However, Bajaur Agency’s political administration bravely decided to keep the immunisation drive going with enhanced security for polio teams.
