PESHAWAR: Residents of Shaheen Muslim Town announced boycott of polio vaccination here on Thursday and held a protest demonstration outside Peshawar Press Club against the death of two minor children in the locality. They alleged that the vaccine caused the death of the children and demanded of the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of the incident.

The protesters were led by Awami National Party leader Haroon Bilour and councillors Gul Mohammad, Irfanullah Khan and Mohammad Imran. The protesters demanded registration of an FIR against the district health officer within two days for his failure to make public the inquiry report about the vaccine.

Talking to mediapersons, the protesters claimed that two children had died a few days ago in Shaheen Muslim Town, Peshawar, soon after they were administered polio vaccine. The death certificates, they claimed, had also proved that the deaths occurred due to the injections which had caused serious unrest and panic among the people.

They said that they would not allow anyone to come to the area for anti-polio campaign. They warned that they would continue the demonstrations unless an FIR was registered against the DHO for his negligence in the case.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2018