Going viral: TTP deny involvement in attacks on polio workers

“We have no link with the attacks on polio teams,” says TTP spokesperson.

MIRAMSHAH/ ISLAMABAD:

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Friday denied any involvement in attacks on polio workers, which have killed 21 people since December, but confirmed it opposed the vaccination as ‘un-Islamic.’

The outlawed militant group last year banned polio vaccinations in the tribal region of Waziristan, alleging the campaign was a cover for espionage.

“We have no link with the attacks on polio teams,” TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan said.

“We have very strong reservations against anti-polio vaccines because they are un-Islamic and bad for health,” he said.

The TTP spokesperson said Pakistanis do not need ‘sympathy’ from the United Nations, which funds vaccination programmes, while US drone strikes target Taliban and al Qaeda operatives in the tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan.

Polio cases in Pakistan hit 198 in 2011, the highest figure for more than a decade and the most of any country in the world, according to the UN. Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only two other countries were the disease is endemic.

Permanent polio counter built at Wagah Border

The Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell has established a permanent polio counter at the Wagah Border immigration post after India recently threatened to impose travel restriction on Pakistan due to the threat of the spread of the virus to other countries.

The counter has been established in the Customs and Immigration Hall aimed at vaccinating travelling children under the age of five against the crippling disease on a regular basis. The Punjab government is responsible for fulfilling the objective by deputing its vaccinators to ensure the children are vaccinated daily, according to official documents available with The Express Tribune.

However the Passenger Facilitation Centre (PFC) officials at Wagah Border have claimed that the provincial government is not fulfilling its objective.

“Since the establishment of the counter at the end of March this year, I have only seen the vaccinators twice at this place, they just came here and left after having a cup of tea with me,” said Malik Zafar Iqbal, an official at the PFC.

He added that he had not seen any vaccinator giving polio drops to any children at the border even once.

An official at the PM’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell said that since the permanent polio counter was built at the border, there has been no headway made in terms of deputing permanent polio teams and no data of vaccinated children has been shared by the Punjab Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) department.

The official said that the cross-border transmission of the virus was a stark reminder of risks associated with the failure of eradicating polio in Pakistan. The outbreak of polio in China in 2011 was traced back to the circulation of the virus in northern Sindh.

When contacted, Executive District Officer (Health) of Lahore Dr Inamul Haq denied the claims and said that vaccinators were inoculating children on a regular basis, not only against polio but also against other preventable diseases.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2013.