DESPITE repeated assurances by the federal and provincial governments, there is no let up in instances of attack on polio staff in different parts of the country. In the latest such incident, a police constable escorting a team of polio campaign surveyors embraced martyrdom in a gun attack in South Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday.
The episode highlights security concerns for polio administering teams especially in KP and Balochistan where resistance to polio campaigns is strong due to misconceptions and propaganda. Last month (March 2024), a policeman escorting a polio team was shot at and injured in an attack by unidentified gunmen in Mardan’s Pirsadi area. Earlier, in January, a senior official of the polio eradication team was shot dead and a police constable critically injured after an armed assault on their vehicle in Bajaur.
In November last year, a policeman escorting a polio team was injured in a similar attack in Mardan. All these and other incidents clearly show that we have still not been able to counter false and negative propaganda whereas this should not be a big issue in this age of social media. Continued presence of polio virus is not only a health challenge for the nation but the issue is also deeply linked to the overall image and reputation of the country as together with Afghanistan we are the only two countries where poliovirus type 1 still remains a threat. Therefore, it is the national duty of every Pakistani to extend fullest possible cooperation to the anti-polio efforts of the state.
