RAWALPINDI: After anti-dengue sprays in two separate schools in Punjab went awry, several residents of the Miterpura locality in the garrison city allegedly attacked a health department team that had come to the area for a routine inspection. At least one health worker was injured in the clash.

Waris Khan police have registered a case against 140 people and two of the alleged attackers, a man and his son, have been arrested.

The health department team, which included 12 health workers, was led by EDO Health Dr Nasir Mehmood and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Managing Director Raja Shaukat.

Malik Meherban, a senior supervisor at the Health Department, told Dawn that two dengue patients hailing from the area had recently been discharged from the Benazir Bhutto Hospital. “The team wanted to inspect the house [for dengue vectors] and inquire after the health of the two patients.”

He said that locals became enraged when the team of health workers began examining the premises where dengue patient Imtiaz Ahmed lived.

On entering the house, lady health workers found dengue larva breeding in water drums inside a cattle pen and complained to their senior officers, who were standing outside.

Two arrested, 140 booked for assaulting government officers

“On seeing the health workers in the street, a large group of people from the neighborhood gathered and began arguing with them,” Mr Mehrban said.

Young men in the mob abused the health team and decried the Punjab chief minister over the anti-dengue spray campaign.

“Our children are being suffocated and hospitalised by the anti-dengue spray. We don’t want the spray in our locality,” one of the protesters said, in an apparent reference to incidents in Attock and Jhelum, where hundreds of schoolgirls had to be hospitalised after being exposed to the toxic spray.

On the other side, lady health workers had a tough time as they were barricaded inside the house where they had spotted water drums with dengue larvae. The women were allegedly assaulted and harassed, and only managed to escape the area with great difficulty.

“The enraged mob didn’t stop there: they chased our vehicles when we were leaving the scene and blocked our path,” Mr Mehrban said, adding that many members of the mob were armed with iron rods, sticks and auto-repair tools. He said that though the mob also tried to set fire to their vehicles, shopkeepers from the nearby market rushed to their rescue.

The injured health worker, identified as Noman Anjum, was taken to Benazir Bhutto Hospital on Sunday afternoon and discharged after being kept under observation for several hours.

Mr Meherban told Dawn the health department team was “on a routine inspection to inquire after the two dengue patients who had recently been discharged”. He said that it was the job of the town municipal administration to check the proliferation of illegal cattle pens that were being operated inside residential areas.

An official from the Waris Khan police station told Dawn that the two men in custody had been charged with tearing the women’s clothes, assaulting government officials and creating a law and order situation.

“Yes, a man and his son have been arrested and raids are underway to nab the others involved in the attack on the health department team,” he said.

This is the first attack on health workers associated with the anti-dengue campaign in Rawalpindi, though anti-polio vaccinators have been attacked in the past.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2015

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