Police escort of vaccinators shot dead

QUETTA: A police constable escorting polio vaccinators was shot dead by gunmen in a suburban neighbourhood of the city on Wednesday. The gun attack took place in Pashtunabad, a troubled spot in Quetta where mostly illegal Afghan immigrants live.

Constable Zainullah was targeted outside a mosque where he had gone to offer prayers while taking a break from his security duty with polio fieldworkers. “Zainullah was shot in the head near a basic health unit,” SHO Pashtunabad police station, Saleem Shawani, told The Express Tribune.

“Two gunmen riding on a motorcycle pulled up near Zainullah and opened fire on him,” a police spokesperson added. The gunmen fled the scene unidentified and unchallenged. Zainullah was fatally wounded and died before he was ferried to the Provincial Sandeman Hospital.

“After shooting Zainullah, the gunmen tried to force their way into the basic health unit but the staff locked the door from inside,” one field worker said requesting anonymity.

A vaccination campaign is under way in 15 union councils of Quetta amid extraordinary security as contingents of law enforcement and security agencies have been deployed to ensure a trouble-free drive. However, Wednesday’s gun attack has raised questions on the security arrangements.

Health authorities said the vaccination campaign would continue despite the attack. “The polio campaign in Quetta has not been suspended,” Dr Ishaq Panezai, an official with the Expanded Programme on Immunisation in Balochistan, told The Express Tribune.

“A high-level meeting was called to review the situation after the attack,” Dr Panezai said, adding that it was the third and last day of vaccination campaign in 15 union councils of Quetta.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2015.