Harming the healers

We now know the fate of the polio vaccinator, his driver and two accompanying constables from the Balochistan Levies who went missing in Zhob district of Balochistan on February 13. They had headed into a remote part of the district — where a security operation has been ongoing since the start of the year — to deliver polio drops to children. Their bodies were found in a mountainous area four days later. The police believe they were shot the day they were abducted. The protests by relatives and other local people indicate how much the majority opposes militants and seeks protective vaccination for its children.

Unfortunately, these will now be harder to obtain than ever before. The murder of polio workers across the country has held back the polio campaign. These security fears were a major factor in the 306 cases of polio detected in the country last year, accounting for over 80 per cent of cases reported globally. Several more cases have already been reported in 2015, most of them from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata. As the global epicentre of polio, a disease it had in the mid-1990s seemed close to eradication, Pakistan now faces an uphill battle to wipe out the potentially crippling virus. Last year, too, campaigns in Balochistan had to be called off after attacks on polio teams and the security personnel escorting them. The general state of lawlessness in the province makes such actions harder to prevent. We need solutions. It has become clear from the latest brutal killings that the militants intend to carry on with their mindless mission. Police guards for teams have not helped as security personnel have become victims too. Nor have media campaigns pressing home the point that polio vaccination is vital for our children’s future. We need to devise new strategies and plans. Pakistan has emerged as the world’s last battleground against polio and so far, the militants appear to be winning the war being fought on it. This must change, for the sake of our children and for the sake of the health workers trying to protect them.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th,  2015.

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