25 villages boycott vaccination drive

3.5m children to be inoculated in 13 high-risk districts

SHABQADAR/ PESHAWAR: Elders of 25 villages situated on the border of Shabqadar in Charsadda and Mohmand Agency boycotted the polio campaign to protest against the government for not fulfilling their demands. The villagers have been demanding authorities to carry out development in the area but their grievances were not addressed.

A district official informed The Express Tribune on Monday villagers established a protest camp on Main Mohmand-Shabqadar Road led by village elders Jalil Khan and Malik Zahid.

While speaking to The Express Tribune, they said they were not against administering polio drops to children but there was no other way to get the attention of the authorities. They said since 1998, not a single penny was spent on the area’s development as neither Charsadda nor Mohmand authorities took full responsibility for the area.

The boycott will continue until Chief Minister Pervez Khattak assures locals of development.

High-risk

A subnational immunisation drive (SID) in 13 high-risk districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has a target to inoculate 3.5million children against poliovirus.

According to officials, polio campaigns were carried out in all districts across the province during national immunisation campaigns. However, since the current campaign is on a subnational level, only high-risk districts have been identified.

“Once these districts are covered, another campaign will be launched to cover the remainder,” said a senior official involved in the campaigns. Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera, Charsadda, Swat, Hangu, Kohat, DI Khan, Bannu, Tank, Lakki Marwat, Karak and Torghar are the districts which will be covered in the ongoing SID.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2016.