KHAR, May 20: The Bajaur Agency political administration has barred women vaccinators from performing their duty and they have been replaced by men.

Taking to journalists on Sunday, acting agency surgeon Dr Amir Khan said that the people, who earlier were resisting polio vaccination, had now assured their cooperation.

Two months ago, agency surgeon Dr Abdul Ghani Khan was killed in an explosion when he was returning from a polio campaign.

Dr Amir Khan said that local clerics and elders had extended their full cooperation to the political authorities for a three-day anti-polio vaccination campaign in the agency starting from Tuesday.

He said that some people had made certain demands for allowing the vaccination teams to their areas.

“Their demands, such as construction of roads, end to loadshedding and electrification of villages, had been met by the government,” he said.

He said that 557 teams had been formed to administer oral polio vaccine (OPV) to 2,15,000 children under the age of five years.

He said that in view of the resistance in some parts of the agency and emergence of five positive cases of polio in the agency last year, every effort was being made to achieve the target of anti-polio vaccination.