No vaccination please: Polio team attacked by refusing parent

They were trying to convince Allah Ditta to get his kids vaccinated

FAISALABAD: A resident of Ghulam Muhammad Abad beat up members of a polio vaccination team and the area in-charge on Wednesday after they insisted that he get his children vaccinated.

A police spokesperson told journalists that a polio vaccination team in Union Council 279, Ghulam Muhammad Abad, was going door-to-door administering polio vaccination drops to children under the age of five years. They knocked at the door of a house and asked the man who opened it to bring his children for polio vaccination.

The spokesperson said that Allah Ditta told them that he did not want his children vaccinated against poliomyelitis. The members of the polio team insisted and Allah Ditta yelled at them and used abusive language against them, the police spokesperson said.

He said that the man announced that he was an ex-army man and threatened them with dire consequences if they tried to vaccinate his children.

The spokesperson said then the polio team members called Muhammad Adnan, the health official charge of area. Adnan asked Allah Ditta to reconsider his position and insisted that he must get his children vaccinated. “However, Allah Ditta attacked them and started beating them up. He used abusive language and humiliated them on the street,” said the police spokesperson.

They complained to the police and a police contingent arrived at Allah Ditta’s house but he had left by that time. Police said they had registered a case against Allah Ditta on a complaint filed by Adnan. They said they had constituted a team to look for Allah Ditta.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2016.