Polio team member dies, two injured in Mansehra road mishap

MANSEHRA: A member of the polio team was killed and two others sustained injuries when a van of the Health Department plunged into a ravine in Parain Khairabad area here on Thursday.

“The team taking part in the pre-campaign polio drive was on the way back to its headquarters in Mansehra when their vehicle met an accident. The area in-charge of the team died and two staffer of the Health Department sustained serious injuries,” Dr Muhammad Siddique, the deputy district health officer, told reporters.

He said though the regular polio campaign would be launched in the district by January 11, the pre-campaign drive was underway across the district.

Dr Siddique said that the area in-charge of the polio team Mohammad Asif, union council polio eradication committee member and medical technician Muhammad Arif and van driver Zameer Shah were injured in the accident.

“The Rescue 1122 rushed all three injured staffer to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital where doctors pronounced Muhammad Asif, who was a schoolteacher by profession as dead,” Dr Siddique said.

In another incident, a boy, Haseeb Tariq, suffocated to death in Baghgrain area of Balakot.

The bereaved family told reporters that Haseeb Tariq was taking a bath in the washroom when an instant geyser caused the suffocation there and he fell on the ground and died on the way to hospital.