An anti-polio campaign is being carried out in the K-P’s 13 high risk districts. PHOTO: APP
PESHAWAR: A policeman was killed and several others were injured in separate bomb blasts that apparently targeted polio vaccination teams in Peshawar and Bajaur Agency, officials said on Tuesday.
According to officials, the first attack occurred in Daudzai area in the suburbs of Peshawar. The bomb, a remote controlled improvised explosive device (IED) hidden on the roadside, went off when a team guarding vaccinators was crossing the area.
“A constable, Muhammad Nazir, and a passerby, Muhmmad Zubair, were injured in the attack,” said SP Rural Furqan Bilal. Nazir, who was critically injured, succumbed to his wounds on his way to the hospital, However, the other victim was out of danger.
The police sprang into action immediately afterwards and began a search operation in the area. They later discovered another bomb planted near the site of the previous attack. The bomb was neutralised by the Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU).
The police believe the second bomb was planted to target people and law enforcement officials, who would gather around the area after the incident. “Each bomb weighed up to 5kg,” a BDU official said.
Later in the afternoon, another polio eradication team came under an IED attack in Bajaur Agency at the Banda area of Tehsil Salarzai. A senior security official from Fata said that six people, including Khasadar force officials, a polio team leader and their driver, were injured in the attack.
The injured were shifted to Khar’s Agency Headquarters Hospital. The political administration declined to comment. However, sources said one of the injured was badly hurt but was out of danger. Jamatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in Peshawar.
30,000 children in K-P out of reach
Meanwhile, despite official claim that 2016 will herald end to poliovirus in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), some 30,000 children in the province are still out of reach of polio vaccinators and could not be inoculated against the crippling virus.
Of the 30,000 children, some 27,000 were not available during visit of the polio workers; whereas 3,000 others were refused anti-polio drops by their parents or guardians.
“These [refusal cases] have sharply decreased as the figure was over 30,000 in 2015 and this is a big achievement of the programme,” said the Emergency Operation Centre’s (EOC) provincial coordinator Akbar Khan.
Speaking on occasion of World Polio Day at a local hotel on Monday, he said the refusal cases were over 8,000 in the provincial capital but due to the untiring efforts of all the stakeholders, the figure had dropped down to only 300.
He said those refusing drops to their children were being convinced to inoculate their kids against the crippling virus.
“The overall situation is satisfactory since the programme management and above all the frontline workers have managed to decrease the poliovirus cases by 60% as compared to 17 cases in 2015 and 68 cases in 2014 across K-P,” he added.
An anti-polio campaign is being carried out in the K-P’s 13 high risk districts.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2016.
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