Seven arrested after attack on polio team in Lahore

LAHORE: Following the Punjab chief minister’s notice, police have arrested seven individuals in connection with the attack on a polio vaccination team.

According to sources, seven individuals involved in the attack have been identified and arrested, while efforts are under way to trace other suspects.

Police have also registered a case against the suspects.

Provincial Health Minister Khawaja Imran Nazir strongly condemned the incident, saying that health workers are fulfilling their duties despite harsh weather conditions and various challenges.

“We should be grateful to these workers who go door to door to protect our children from a deadly disease like polio,” he said.

Nazir asserted that no miscreant would be allowed to violate the dignity of health workers, and the government would make an example of those involved in such acts.

He also urged the public to fully cooperate with the anti-polio campaign to help make Pakistan polio-free once and for all.

According to the FIR, a case has been registered against 20 to 25 unidentified men and women under sections pertaining to obstruction in official duty, rioting, and damage to public property.

The report stated that when parents of children began to arrive, an argument ensued, after which women called male family members from their homes.

The attackers allegedly issued threats, resisted the vaccination drive, and threw away vaccines worth millions of rupees, damaging the vaccine carrier in the process. One health worker was also injured during the attack.

Earlier, Levies official guarding a polio vaccination team was martyred in Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The official, identified as Muhammad Umar, was on duty in the Matta area of Swat when unidentified assailants opened fire, killing him on the spot.

The poliovirus is currently present in only two countries across the world – Pakistan and Afghanistan. The global polio eradication campaign was launched in 1988 when polio was paralysing over 1,000 children every day.

Almost all countries started the war against polio together, which eventually led to a 99 percent reduction in polio cases in merely a few years. More than 2.5 billion children have been fully vaccinated against polio in the ongoing war against polio.

Billions of dollars have been spent on the ongoing war against polio with the support of developed countries, international organisations and philanthropists. However, completely eliminating the last one per cent of poliovirus cases is still proving difficult in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Social conflicts, negative propaganda against polio vaccination, political instability, difficulties in reaching remote populations, problems of Afghan refugees and weak basic health system infrastructure are the major obstacles in the eradication of polio.