THE latest attack on a polio vaccinator is barbaric even by the most brutal standards. Salma Farooqui, a wife and mother of five and an active participant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Sehat ka Insaf anti-polio initiative, was kidnapped from her village in suburban Peshawar on Sunday night and tortured and killed. The victim’s bullet-riddled body was found in a field on Monday. It boggles the mind to think how those who justify or at least tolerate attacks on polio workers will defend this horrific crime. As reported, the victim’s body seemed to have received blows from rifle butts and cuts from knives. There were no claims of responsibility till the time of writing and police said the motive for the murder was unclear. However, Ms Farooqui’s family are convinced she was targeted due to her polio work as she had been receiving threatening calls. Even though the banned TTP may have in recent days ‘distanced’ itself from attacks on polio teams, some militant leaders have also admitted there are ‘hard-liners’ within their ranks who still regard vaccinators and those who protect them as kosher targets. At least a dozen security men escorting vaccinators were killed in Jamrud, Khyber Agency, earlier this month while polio workers were kidnapped from Frontier Region Tank in February. At least three health workers were gunned down in Karachi in January. Overall, one estimate suggests around 60 people related to the anti-polio campaign have been killed since December 2012.

Salma Farooqui soldiered on in her brave mission despite mortal threats; but on Sunday night the monsters who insist on crippling Pakistan’s children and murdering those who wish to vaccinate them against disease registered another ‘success’. For the countless other Salma Farooquis in this country working to save Pakistan’s children from permanent disability and even death, the state must bring the criminals responsible for her killing to justice and strike at the root of the problem. In the meantime, we will wait for the TTP and its political supporters to openly condemn this outrage.