Militants kill four polio workers in Pakistan

[Not Sure]

Militants kill four polio workers in Pakistan


By Gul Yousafzai


QUETTA, Islamabad Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:56am EST

(Reuters) - Gunmen killed three Pakistani women polio workers and their driver on Wednesday, police said, in the most deadly attack on the health workers in two years.

Teams in Pakistan working to immunize children against polio are often targeted by Taliban militants, who say the campaign is a cover for Western spies, or accuse workers of distributing vaccines designed to sterilize children.

The women were attacked on their way to meet a police escort, said police official Asad Raza in the southwestern city of Quetta.

"Two men on a motorcycle intercepted the van and shot the occupants using a handgun," he said.

Polio cases this year stand at a 15-year high of 265 in Pakistan. The disease, which can kill or paralyze a child within hours of infection, had been eradicated everywhere else, except for Nigeria and Afghanistan.

One reason for the spike in Pakistan is a military campaign in North Waziristan, a rugged region on the Afghan border, that forced a large number of unvaccinated children to flee their homes and move around the country in June.

An international monitoring body also blamed Pakistan's government in a report last month. Vaccinators rarely get paid their government stipends, while police protection teams often turn up late, if at all.

The complacency of Pakistan's government was "disastrous", the report said, warning that the country risked reinfecting the rest of the world. Pakistan has already exported the virus to Syria, China, Israel and Egypt.

(Additional reporting by Syed Raza Hassan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

 

[CENTCOM]

We send our heartfelt condolences to the victims’ families. Words cannot express the brutal nature of this crime. We hope to see the culprits caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Ali Khan
DIgital Engagement Team, USCENTCOM

 

[Bouncer]

We send our heartfelt condolences to the victims’ families. Words cannot express the brutal nature of this crime. We hope to see the culprits caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Ali Khan
DIgital Engagement Team, USCENTCOM

You do realize that US govt is partially responsible for these murders? It was your CIA that used polio teams for spying and gave these fucking mullahs another excuse against vaccination.

 

[root]

We send our heartfelt condolences to the victims’ families. Words cannot express the brutal nature of this crime. We hope to see the culprits caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Ali Khan
DIgital Engagement Team, USCENTCOM

It was your fault they think these polio workers are CIA contractor.Also they have now brainwashed people with this theory to justify killing of polio workers.

 

[jarves]

RIP.

 

[Not Sure]

You do realize that US govt is partially responsible for these murders? It was your CIA that used polio teams for spying and gave these fucking mullahs another excuse against vaccination.

It was your fault they think these polio workers are CIA contractor.Also they have now brainwashed people with this theory to justify killing of polio workers.

It's been going on for a long time in Pakistan. Much before CIA went after Osama in Pakistan. The problem is within, and unless you acknowledge this problem, you won't find any solution.

Camps hosting refugees from FATA are already making the region ripe for polio spread. Unless Pakistanis work collectively to eradicate this disease, it will only spread.

 

[root]

It's been going on for a long time in Pakistan. Much before CIA went after Osama in Pakistan. The problem is within, and unless you acknowledge this problem, you won't find any solution.

Camps hosting refugees from FATA are already make a region ripe for polio to spread. Unless Pakistanis work collectively to eradicate this disease, it will only spread.

What we do send more polio workers to die?

 

[Old Navigator]

We will have to make our stance clear that no matter what may come, evert child shall be vaccinated/given polio drops.
After this statement what can any of us (Pakistani) do? but to send our own sisters/mothers/brothers/father to death.
Is there any alternative drive to eradicate polio forever?

 

[haviZsultan]

This is a sickening attack. But lets look at where the perception came that polio workers were CIA agents. It came from one man named Shakil Afridi running a false polio campaign that was actually a CIA monitoring campaign. Because of the US now everyone thinks that polio teams are CIA agents.

Sure it is a primitive brain of filthy terrorists but it was the US that caused our problems in eradicating polio.

 

[syedali73]

This is a sickening attack. But lets look at where the perception came that polio workers were CIA agents. It came from one man named Shakil Afridi running a false polio campaign that was actually a CIA monitoring campaign. Because of the US now everyone thinks that polio teams are CIA agents.

Sure it is a primitive brain of filthy terrorists but it was the US that caused our problems in eradicating polio.

Just a little correction here. This traitor was not associated with polio, but with a fake hepatitis vaccination program.

 

[gau8av]

bad terrorists ?

 

[Dash]

what a mess.

 

[Echo_419]

You do realize that US govt is partially responsible for these murders? It was your CIA that used polio teams for spying and gave these fucking mullahs another excuse against vaccination.

There lies your answer
On topic
RIP their sacrifices will not go in vain

 

[Not Sure]

What we do send more polio workers to die?

Rope in the ones who oppose vaccinations.

For instance, if the Pakistani government and 'Establishment' force JeI to make noise on Polio an endorse the workers as its own, the militants won't have much ground left. Once the road is paved for the workers, the disease won't survive even a few months.

 

[Judge]

This is a sickening attack. But lets look at where the perception came that polio workers were CIA agents. It came from one man named Shakil Afridi running a false polio campaign that was actually a CIA monitoring campaign. Because of the US now everyone thinks that polio teams are CIA agents.

Sure it is a primitive brain of filthy terrorists but it was the US that caused our problems in eradicating polio.

You do realize that US govt is partially responsible for these murders? It was your CIA that used polio teams for spying and gave these fucking mullahs another excuse against vaccination.

Please, I request you all to stop peddling this bull$hit.

Polio workers were threatened, Polio vaccination teams were stopped from doing their work, mullahs issuing threats and Pakistani polio program was grossly ineffective long before US used Shakil Afridi to get to Osama.

But as is par for the course for most Pakistanis, you will blame others for what you have failed to achieve. Sure the Afridi episode exacerbated the problem..but you are all lying through your teeth if you suggest that it is the cause of the problem..