At gunpoint: 500 polio workers’ allowance looted

KARACHI: Robbers deprived 500 polio workers of their allowance on Thursday when they waylaid a health office dispenser who had withdrawn Rs506,520 from a bank. Muhammad Ali, a dispenser associated with the Malir Town health office, was sent to withdraw the money from the Model Colony’s branch of the National Bank Limited where two robbers intercepted him and took away the cash meant to be disbursed among more than 500 polio vaccinators. “Disbursed by the Sindh government, the amount was to be paid as an allowance for the hired polio workers,” said the Malir Town Health Officer Dr Masood Solangi, adding that the bank was located close to the health office premises. Dr Solangi said that an FIR has been registered against the unidentified persons. “We have been assured by the senior officials of the police that the robbers will be arrested soon,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2015.