GARHI YASIN: A three-member lady health worker polio team was shot at and injured by armed men in Garhi Yasin area of Shikarpur district on Wednesday.

The polio team was working as part of the latest four-day polio vaccination drive launched across the country.

Two lady health workers sustained gunshot injuries, while a third was injured while trying to flee the scene. The injured workers were shifted to Garhi Yasin Hospital.

The armed men were hidden in a forested area and ambushed the workers as they passed by. The polio workers had not been provided with police security, which is standard procedure during polio drives.

Bushra Arain, chair of the lady health workers' association, has called for lady health workers to boycott the ongoing polio drive in Shikarpur district. She also emphasised the need to provide police security for polio workers.

Although the duration of the boycott has not been specified, the drive concludes on Thursday as three days of the four-day polio drive have already passed.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world which have been transferring the polio virus to each other. The main reason is that the two countries share a 2,500km long border.

Children are vaccinated at legal entry points of the border but since Pakistan is hosting 1.6 million Afghan refugees, a large number of people cross the border illegally from different routes and it is not possible to vaccinate them at the border.

Polio workers have long been targeted in the country due to rumours that the polio immunisation drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy.

Opinion

Editorial

Tax unrest
Updated 14 Jul, 2025

Tax unrest

Govt has a very poor track record of staying the course of tough decisions that affect the ruling party’s core political base.
Surging numbers
14 Jul, 2025

Surging numbers

PAKISTAN is running out of time — and space. Our population, now over 240m, continues to grow at nearly 2pc a ...
Media matters
14 Jul, 2025

Media matters

PAKISTAN’s journalists are no strangers to living dangerously. The Freedom Network’s new report, Journalism in...
Hybrid worries
Updated 13 Jul, 2025

Hybrid worries

Once elected office is reduced to theatre, useful only for maintaining appearances, it becomes a stage for managing perceptions rather than exercising power.
Bitter taste
13 Jul, 2025

Bitter taste

THE government’s plan to import 350,000 tonnes of sugar, months after allowing the export of more than twice that...
No red lines
13 Jul, 2025

No red lines

THE US’ move to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied...