DADU: Polio workers stopped work in Dadu region after some armed men roughed up two members of a polio team in Pat Gul Mohammad near Johi, 19 kilometres from here on Wednesday, and snatched away their motorcycle, vaccines and other paraphernalia.

The armed men kicked, hit with fists and butts of guns Shahid Korejo and Hafeez Leghari (polio workers) when they were on a way to Kachho area to administer polio drops to children during the ongoing anti polio drive launched in 52 union councils of the district since Feb 24.

The drive will continue till Feb 27.

After learning about the attack, a team of health officials led by executive district officer of health Dr Ghulam Hyder Akhund, taluka health officer Dr Rasheed Ahmed Qureshi, district surveillance officer Dr Karam Ali Shah and focal person for polio met deputy commissioner Nasir Abbas Soomro and informed him of the attack.

The DC asked DSP Nazeer Ahmed Solangi to arrest the attackers, recover the looted items and provide full security to all polio teams working in remote areas.

But supervising officer of polio team in Johi, Dr Haji Khan, told Dawn that police had done nothing yet to recover the motorcycle and other belongings neither had they arrested any attacker.

Focal person for polio, Dr Zahid Hussain Khuhro, said that polio drive had been launched in 52 union councils of the district from Feb 24 to 27 to administer drops to 320,624 children.

The teams encountered a total of 23 refusal cases, mostly concerning the ungrounded fear the vaccine would have adverse affects on children’s health and some citing religious grounds for refusal, he said.

He said that 15 cases of refusal were encountered in Dadu taluka and eight in Johi taluka. A total of 891 teams including 993 lady health workers were busy in the drive. The polio workers were trying to convince parents to have their children inoculated against polio, he added.

District surveillance coordinator of health department, Dr Karam Ali Shah, said that 11 cases of acute flaccid paralysis had been notified in the district to make parents aware of the dangers of refusing to have their children vaccinated against the crippling disease.

Samples of stool of the eight suspected polio-stricken children had been taken and sent to laboratory for confirmation of the virus and three more samples would be sent soon, he said.