Polio team assaulted in Hyderabad over vaccine refusal
Police have detained two people suspected of being brothers of the attackers
HYDERABAD: Unidentified people assaulted a polio vaccination team in Heerabad Qureshi area of the city on Tuesday after a reported disagreement.
The anti-polio team did not have apolice escort with it. Following the incident, the vaccination campaign in the area has been suspended for now.
Police officials said the incident was caused after male members of a family began arguing with a polio team that had administered vaccination drops to eligible children.
Polio officials Naveed, Kainat and Jannat claim they had the family's permissiontoadminister thevaccine butwere assaulted by the male members as they did not want theirchildren to take the drops.
Following the incident, police arrived on scene but the attackers had left. However, police detainedtwo people, reported to bebrothersof the attackers, and are investigating the case after lodging a report on the complaint of thepolio team.
The Emergency Operation Centre for Polio launched on Monday an anti-polio campaign until Friday (November 3) in 21 districts/towns of Sindh.
These districts include Karachi, Dadu, Ghotki, Jaccobabad, Kambar, Kashmore, Larkana, Shikarpur, Sukkur, Badin, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Matiari, Naushero Feroz, Sanghar, SBA, Sajjawal, Thatta and Jamshoro.
Five cases of the crippling disease were registered so far this year.
Polio cases have been on a decline in the country with 54 and 20 cases reported in the years 2015 and 2016 respectively, as opposed to 306 cases in 2014.