Polio eradication: Campaign kicks off in militant-infested Bara

Over 1,000 children vaccinated in Akakhel area with the help of local tribal militia .

JAMRUD: Times change, so do perceptions.

For the first time in five years, a polio eradication campaign kicked off in an area where religious extremists hold sway. These extremists believe that polio vaccination was, in fact, a ploy by ‘non-believers’ to deprive the new generation of Muslims of their fertility.

But this perception appears to be changing now.

A polio vaccination campaign in the Akakhel area of Bara, a sub-division of the Khyber tribal agency, was made possible with help from a local tribal militia. Health Department teams administered drops to as many as 1,161 children below the age of five years.

Over the next two days, the teams will go door-to-door to vaccinate the tribesmen’s children. Local political authorities have made elaborate security arrangements for the health teams who received full cooperation from the tribesmen.

“We are thankful to the political administration and the health department for sending teams to our area to vaccinate our children against polio,” Haji Gul Miran Afridi, chief of the local militia, paradoxically called Amn (peace) Sharista, told Express News.

For the past five years, a paramilitary operation has been ongoing in Bara against the extremists of Lashkar-e-Islam militant group. Afridi offered full support to the government campaign on behalf of his militia.

He called upon the government to replicate the polio eradication campaign in other parts of Bara sub-division as well.

The health department, in coordination with the political administration, also plans on setting up a free medical camp in the area for local tribesmen.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2012.