MINGORA: Residents of different villages in Khwazakhela tehsil have complained about increase in dog bites amid inaction of the tehsil administration.

Talking to reporters on Friday, they said in the past two weeks over 20 people, including children, were bitten by stray dogs in Titabut, Landykas, Langar, Tikdarai, Chalyar and other villages. They said majority of the victims of the dog bites were children.

“Majority of the victims bitten by dogs are children after which their parents are in mental stress,” said Zahoor Ali, a local resident, adding that he did not send his children to school alone after the increase in dog attacks.

The villagers complained of shortage of anti-rabies vaccine in the government hospitals, forcing people to purchase the vaccine from the market at high rates.

“We rushed two children to the tehsil hospital in Khwazkhela after the dog bites but found no anti-rabies vaccine there and were told to buy it from the market. So we purchased the vaccine from a private medical store,” said Aziz Khan, another local resident.

The people said the vaccine was also not abundantly available and they had to buy it in the black market at high price. They said majority of the people were too poor to buy the costly vaccine.

The villagers said the municipal administration had turned a blind eye to the matter.

“Despite tall claims of the provincial government, anti-rabies vaccine and other lifesaving drugs are not available at hospitals,” Hazrat Ali, a civil society member, lamented, demanding that the government provide anti-rabies vaccine to the hospitals.

The locals also demanded of the district administration to launch an operation to eliminate the stray and mad dogs.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2019