Gunmen kill vaccinator in NW Pakistan: officials

PESHAWAR. (AFP) – Two gunmen shot dead a health worker administering polio drops and other vaccines to children in a restive Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said.

The murder took place at a government-run dispensary in
Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal district. The gunmen
ordered women and children to leave before shooting dead the
vaccinator, doctor Sameen Jan, the top health official in
Khyber told AFP.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the killing, but
Taliban militants have been targeting health workers and
security personnel during vaccination campaigns.

A local administration official confirmed the incident and said
that the assailants left a note on the body warning of dire
consequences for anyone continuing to vaccinate children in
Khyber.

The attacks come despite a recent fatwa by a prominent
Pakistani religious scholar, known as the "Father of the
Taliban", who urged parents to immunise their children
against polio and other life-threatening diseases and said
vaccinations were compliant with Sharia.

Last year the Pakistani Taliban banned polio vaccinations in
the tribal region of Waziristan, alleging the campaign was a
cover for espionage.

Eradication efforts have also suffered due to long-standing
rumours that the vaccine was part of a Western plot to sterlise
Muslims.

Ansarul Mujahideen, a little-known militant group linked to
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the umbrella Taliban faction
in Pakistan, has threatened opposition leader and former
cricket hero Imran Khan for criticising attacks on polio
vaccination teams.

Khan on Wednesday declared polio workers as soldiers of
Islam and said those attacking them were not doing any
justice to humanity, Islam or Pakistanis.

Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio
remains endemic and efforts to stamp it out have been badly
affected by attacks on health workers inoculating children.

Polio is also endemic in Afghanistan and Nigeria.

According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan
recorded 72 cases of polio this year compared with 58 in
2012.

New Delhi last week announced it would require citizens from
Pakistan and other polio-affected nations travelling to India to
take a mandatory vaccination for the disease at least six weeks
prior to their departure.

Via: Vanguard