PESHAWAR, April 27: More than 70 lady health workers in Swat district have reportedly quit their jobs after Maulana Fazlullah bluntly forbade women to leave their homes to deliver community services.

Resignations have been reported from Deray, Kuza and Bara Banda, Kamber, Charbagh, Matta and Kanju areas, according to health department sources.

The sources said that Maulana Fazlullah wielded considerable influence because of his FM radio stations and was ‘reversing’ socio-economic developments in the district, besides encouraging Talibanisation.

They said that after successfully targeting health workers involved in polio vaccination, Maulana Fazlullah had turned his attention towards lady health workers.

The sources said that during the past few weeks, more than 70 of them had resigned and more of them would quit their jobs soon.

They said while the lady health workers who quit their jobs had cited disparate reasons it was clear that they had been forced to do so because of threats from religious hard-liners.

A health department official said that such a large number of resignations had never been reported from anywhere in the province.

Sources said that last month the police’s attempt to arrest Maulana Fazlullah had been foiled by people from areas where his FM radio stations had influence.

Started in 1993, the Lady Health Workers’ Programme was effective in bridging the gap in community health facilities.

They had been providing preventive and curative primary healthcare services with an emphasis on mother and child health. The lady health workers were liaising between the formal health system and the community-based one.

They were also disseminating health education, specially highlighting hygiene and sanitation issues.

In Swat, for the past six months, all lady health workers had been confined to their homes, just coming out to perform their duties during the polio vaccination campaign. Maulana Fazlullah has been challenging the writ of the state by way of operating 12 FM radio stations, spearheading a Talibanisation drive and urging the local people to stop educating girls and ‘asking’ working women, particularly in the health and education sectors, to quit their jobs.

According to reports from other areas, particularly in the Matta tehsil, some working women faced an unpleasant situation at the hands of the followers of Maulana Fazlullah after they refused to leave their jobs and stay at homes.