KARACHI: A week-long drive against polio kicked off on Monday in all seven districts of Karachi as well as district Kashmore to vaccinate nearly three million children against the crippling disease.

An official said the campaign was formally launched in all the Karachi districts and Kashmore, and remained smooth throughout the day with the support of the district administrations and law enforcement agencies.

“There are total 13,568 volunteers taking part in the drive with 3,057 workers supervising the operations at different levels,” said an official. “Around 5,000 personnel of the Sindh police and Pakistan Rangers have been deployed for the security cover of polio workers.

He said that the drive, which would end on Nov 5, would target 2.9m children under five years of age in Karachi and Kashmore.

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Sindh Police Riffat Mukhtar Raja ordered the police to ensure strict security measures for the drive.

He said that all the security steps should be made stricter with coordination at the police station level, according to a spokesman for the Sindh police.

The provincial police chief said security should be provided to polio teams on the basis of inner and outer cordons in the sensitive union committees. Special responsibilities should be assigned to police commandos in all such areas where policemen in plain clothes should also be deployed, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2023