Anti-polio campaign
Editorial
The News, August 09, 2007
Not a day goes by these days without news of
extremist violence emanating from some corner of
the country. On Tuesday night, to take just one
of the incidents of this kind, a police check
post was destroyed in a bombing in Bannu;
fortunately, the only casualties were the three
people hurt in the blast. In the Chamang area of
Bajaur Agency, meanwhile, 12 health workers were
taken captive and beaten up, for visiting the
place to dispense anti-polio drops to children.
In fact, the team was doubly guilty of the sin -
for their campaign is “un-Islamic,” according to
local clerics, and intended to keep the local
population in check — because its members dared
to go to Chamang despite warnings in advance from
the clerics. Tuesday’s detention and beatings of
the team resulted in the anti-polio drive being
suspended in the Agency. For only a while, let’s
hope, because the effort in Chamang was part of a
countrywide campaign against the crippling and
often fatal disease. At last, polio is on the way
out in the world.
After Dr Marwat’s assassination and the shock
waves it sent across Pakistan, the government had
pledged to provide every possible security to
anti-polio health workers in the tribal areas and
elsewhere in the NWFP. While this may not be the
easiest thing to do in that wild region, the ease
with which the criminals appear to have kidnapped
the workers shows the local authorities could
have done far more to keep that promise than they
actually did. Apart from the aspect of probable
negligence, there’s the element of possible
politics. It would be naive to assume that the
incident was solely the result of clerical
bigotry. It’s not unlikely that it was another
facet of the religious extremists’ campaign of
destabilisation of the province, of keeping Lal
Masjid alive.
Pakistan polio drive is suspended - Islamic hardliners say the vaccine is part of a Western plot
BBC News, 8 August 2007
PAKISTAN POLIO DRIVE IS SUSPENDED
A child in neighbouring India receiving the polio vaccine
Islamic hardliners say the vaccine is part of a Western plot
A polio vaccination programme in a remote
Pakistani tribal region has been suspended after
villagers threatened health workers, officials
say.
Hardline clerics in the area are against the
programme, saying it is a US conspiracy to render
people incapable of producing children.
Officials say that up to 4,000 children in two
villages in the Bajaur tribal region were due to
be vaccinated.
Pakistan is one of only five countries where the polio virus still exists.
Eleven new cases have been reported so far this year.
Hotbed
"We have stopped vaccination programme after
tribesmen threatened our workers and broke their
equipment in Sarkari Killa and Kotgi Charmang
villages on Tuesday," Dr Cherag Hussain told the
Reuters news agency.
“They have threatened to kill health workers if they visit again.”
On Tuesday officials said that armed men abducted
and beat 11 health workers sent to Bajaur to
administer polio vaccinations.
They said that health workers were held for four
hours as their captors smashed vaccination kits.
Dr Hussain said that the work in Bajaur was part
of a national drive this year to immunise 32
million children aged under five-years-old.
The campaign in the Bajaur region - part of North
West Frontier Province (NWFP) - was also
suspended early this year after a doctor and a
health worker were killed in a roadside blast.
Correspondents say that Bajaur is considered a
hotbed of support for Islamic militants.
Health officials in the area have been trying to
dispel rumours - sometimes spread by radio
stations and mosques - that the polio campaign is
a Western conspiracy to reduce Muslim populations.
The disease has been eliminated in developed
nations but persists in parts of India, Nigeria,
Afghanistan and Pakistan.