Vaccinator threatened

Published December 22, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Dec 21: A 21-year-old polio worker was threatened by an unidentified man in the Jhangi Syedan locality of Tarnol on Friday.

The police said they were considering registering an FIR against the unidentified man.

Syed Hareem Abbas Zaidi, an electrical engineering student at the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, was engaged by the CDA for the polio vaccination. Mr Zaidi informed the CDA management that he went to a house to give vaccine to children.

When he came back to the vehicle in the field, he found his files missing. In the meantime, a man, whose height was over six feet, reached there and twisted his arm. The unidentified man warned the vaccinator that like his files he would make him vanish.

The vaccinator said that on Thursday another person, who was speaking Pashto, had told him that polio vaccination was a US conspiracy against the Muslims and he should not take part in the campaign.

Dr Hassan Urooj, the CDA director health, told Dawn that after getting the information the member administration and he reached the spot and filed a complaint with the police. “The police assured us that an FIR would be lodged,” he said.

He said after the incident in Karachi, polio team members were reluctant to go out. “But we told them to continue the campaign in the best interest of the nation.”

A member of the polio team requesting not to be identified said they got Rs250 per day and spent all the day moving from door to door. “We also prepare and submit the record to our supervisors. Our life is in danger but still we get only Rs250,” he said.

It may be noted that on July 16, Mohsin Ali, a polio team member reached the house of one Nadir Khan in the Johda village of Golra police to vaccinate his children against polio. However, Khan allegedly tortured him.

The next day, the accused got bail before arrest from the court.

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