(Adnkronos) – Attacks against the polio vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan continue. This morning, a few hours after vaccinations resumed, gunmen attacked a group of operators in the Karak district and a policeman escorting them was killed. A healthcare worker was injured. Another attack was reported in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where another healthcare worker was injured.
Vaccination campaigns are carried out periodically in Pakistan, but staff involved in the initiatives often end up being targeted by attacks by groups linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban. In recent years, dozens of health workers and officers escorting them have been killed.
The goal of the vaccination campaign, according to the Ministry of Health in Islamabad, is to reach more than 44 million children under the age of five in 143 districts of the country. “We will win this war,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said yesterday, as he administered vaccines to some children. Last year, six cases of polio were reported in the country, while since January there have been 63 confirmed cases, mostly in the provinces of Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on the border with Afghanistan, where many families refuse vaccinations and health workers are unable to reach the locations due to the security situation.
