“As soon as we reached there, an armed prayer leader warned us against visiting the area. Some locals said: ‘On one hand, our enemy (a reference to the United States) is bombing us for no reason while on the other hand you are coming here disguised as polio campaigners to spread vulgarity.”
Paramedic Hazrat Jamal
One of the three injured in the explosion
The Daily Times
The government said the parents of some 24,000 children had refused to give them the polio vaccine because of a campaign by radical Muslim clergy. -AFP
A Pakistani health official in charge of a campaign to innoculate children against polio has been killed in a bomb blast Friday, following rumours the vaccination was a US plot to sterilise them.(AFP/File/Ali Arif)
Immunization doctor is punished with death for administering evil polio vaccine in polio infested region of Pakistan.
The BBC reports:
Abdul Ghani Khan, played a key role in a polio immunisation drive in the Bajaur tribal region.
The government is facing resistance from some tribes in its campaign to vaccinate children against polio.
The border areas are thought to contain strong Taleban support
Some tribal leaders say the vaccine is a part of a US conspiracy to reduce fertility and reproduction rates.
Two of the three guards travelling with Dr Khan are in a serious condition after the blast, in a village around 50kms (30 miles) northeast of Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal region.
Pro-Taleban militants are known to be active in the area.
Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where polio remains endemic.
It is a highly infectious viral disease which mostly affects children under five-years-old.
The polio vaccine rumors are sometimes broadcast from loud speakers at the local mosques.
