Anti-polio drive: Lawyer beats up polio workers

The lawyer had told the polio team to leave the area but they had refused to

FAISALABAD: Ghulam Muhammad Abad police have registered a case against a lawyer who allegedly beat up a polio worker on duty near Kabootranwala Chowk, Ghulam Muhammad Abad, on Thursday. The worker was vaccinating children as part of a polio vaccination campaign which is underway across the country.

A police spokesperson said a polio vaccination team was going door-to-door vaccinating children in localities near Kabootranwala Chowk when Advocate Abdur Rehman, a resident of the area, told the polio team to stop what they were doing and leave the area immediately.

He said that the polio team ignored him but then he attacked some members of the polio team and beat them up. Ali Dawood, a polio worker, and Rehana Bibi received minor injuries.

The spokesperson said that they had registered a case against Rehman.

Health District Officer Nawazish Ali Goraya told The Express Tribune that this was a one-off incident. “Polio teams across the district have been working fastidiously towards their set targets… only in Ghulam Muhammad Abad a man threatened the staff and tried to hinder their work.”

He said that the police had registered a case but Rehman had not been arrested so far. The DO said that several teams from the Health Department would later join polio workers in administering polio inoculations to children in the district. Children who had not been vaccinated during the campaign would be given polio vaccine drops, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2016.