Anti-polio campaign: Balochistan Constabulary official shot dead

Assistant commissioner, deputy commissioner rejected the notion that assailants specifically targeted the vaccinators.

QUETTA:

A Balochistan Constabulary (BC) official escorting female anti-polio campaigners was shot dead in Loralai district, about 215 kilometres northwest of Quetta, on Thursday. Two armed men opened fire at the security official as he stood at the corner of a narrow street on Quetta Road, where health workers were administering vaccinations to children inside a house. “He was shot six times in the chest. He died instantly,” Loralai Assistant Commissioner Miran Baloch told The Express Tribune.

The assistant commissioner and deputy commissioner rejected the notion that the assailants specifically targeted the vaccinators. “They wanted to snatch the security official’s weapon and he was shot dead after he resisted,” said Miran Baloch, adding that this was a case of weapon-snatching. He said the numbers of refusals for the vaccine are very few. The anti-polio drive is now in its third day in Loralai.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2014.