Killed while vaccinating children in Pakistan

Vaccine Polio Pakistan unvaccinated children travel banVaccine. Photo: Pixabay.com

Mother and daughter killed while vaccinating children in Pakistan

Armed men shot and killed a mother and her daughter who participated in a polio vaccination campaign in Quetta, southwest in Pakistan.

 

– The two were killed Thursday morning on the outskirts of the city, where they participated in the second last of a five-day campaign to vaccinate children under five years of age, police spokesperson Muslim Ali informs.

So far no one has been arrested, and no one has stated that they are responsible. The leader of the country’s polio vaccination program, Ayesha Raza Farooq, condemns the killings.

More than 100 health workers, as well as security guards who protects them in the vaccination work, have been killed since December 2012 by insurgents affiliated with the Taliban, according to the police.

Insurgents accuse the health workers of being Western spies and claim that the vaccines are intended to sterilize Muslim children. The allegation relates to the fact that the CIA initiated a fake vaccination campaign as a cover operation to track down former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in 2011.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where there are still new polio cases, although the number is falling. Last year, eight children were registered with polio infection, down from 306 cases in 2014. Afghanistan and Nigeria have not eradicated polio either. Pakistan’s aim is to eradicate polio this year.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today