The fresh attacks on U.N.-backed polio vaccination teams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday claimed the lives of two more female volunteer in Charsadda.
The killings took place in the Shabqadar area of Charsadda where a lady supervisor’s vehicle was attacked by identified gunmen during the anti-polio drive. Both supervisor and her driver were killed on the spot.
Earlier a volunteer in Peshawar was shot in head and is in critical condition in Lady Reading Hospital.
The attacks came a day after five female polio workers were killed Karachi and Peshawar.
In Nowshera unknown motorcyclists opened fire on the female volunteers of polio vaccination teams. However, fortunately the health workers escaped unharmed.
Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan has claimed responsibility for the attacks on Tuesday during which four women were killed in Karachi and teenage girl was killed in Peshawar.
It is pertinent to mention that the Taliban militants had issued a fatwa against polio vaccination in the past.
Following the back-to-back attacks on workers, the children’s agency UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have suspended work on campaigns against polio in Pakistan.
The attacks on polio teams in Pakistan aren’t new and the militants have kidnapped and killed foreign NGO workers in the past.
In July, the attackers had shot a foreign doctor working on a polio vaccination campaign.
Earlier this year, the Taliban militants in tribal areas had banned the polio vaccination campaigns saying these campaigns are the part to spy on them.
According to a report issued by GPEI earlier this year, Pakistan is one of only three countries alongside Afghanistan and Nigeria where polio is still epidemic.
At least 35 children in Pakistan have been reportedly infected by Polio this year.
