Three Levies men hurt in blast targeting polio team in Bajaur

KHAR: Three Levies personnel were injured in an IED blast targeting a polio team in Bajaur Agency’s Khar district on Tuesday, officials said.

Officials in the political administration said the team was targeted while administering polio drops to children in the area. The injured were identified as Saeedullah, Shafiullah and Zahid, who were rushed to Agency’s headquarter hospital, Khar. Soon after the blast, security forces personnel rushed to the site and cordoned off the area.

Field workers and security forces involved in anti-polio drives in the Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have often been targeted by militants. According to another report from Hyderabad, unidentified people assaulted a polio vaccination team in Heerabad Qureshi area of the city on Tuesday after a reported disagreement.

The anti-polio team did not have a police escort with it. Following the incident, the vaccination campaign in the area has been suspended.

Police officials said the incident was caused after male members of a family began arguing with a polio team that had administered vaccination drops to eligible children. Polio officials Naveed, Kainat and Jannat claim they had the family’s permission to administer the drops but were assaulted by the male members as they did not want their children to take the drops. Following the incident, police arrived on the scene but the attackers had left.

However, police detained two people, reported to be brothers of the attackers, and are investigating the case after lodging a report on the complaint of the polio team.

The Emergency Operation Centre for Polio launched Monday an anti-polio campaign until November 3 in 21 districts/towns of Sindh. These districts includeKarachi, Dadu, Ghotki, Jacobabad, Kambar, Kashmore, Larkana, Shikarpur, Sukkur, Badin, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Matiari, Naushero Feroz, Sanghar, SBA, Sajjawal, Thatta and Jamshoro. Five cases of the crippling disease were registered so far this year. Polio cases have been on a decline in the country with 54 and 20 cases reported in the years 2015 and 2016 respectively, as opposed to 306 cases in 2014.