Unknown armed men abducted two polio vaccinators in Dera Ismail Khan, the media reported on Tuesday.
As per the reports, the gunmen attacked the vehicle carrying the polio team to a health facility and abducted two people. The kidnapping comes in hardly a week before the nationwide anti-polio campaign is set to begin from April 21 to vaccinate 45 million children.
According to the police officials, Raza Muhammad and Muhammad Asif were kidnapped at gunpoint by unknown persons and taken away while they returned from a training session. It is yet to be ascertained who is behind the abduction.
According to the World Health Organisation, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two remaining countries with polio cases, while Pakistan reported its sixth case of the year in March.
On Monday, Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal revealed that Pakistanis have refused polio vaccination 85,000 times, with 34,000 of these happening only in Karachi and 27,000 refusals recorded only in the city’s East District alone.
Records have shown that 15,000 refusals came from Urdu-speaking families, while 10,000 Pashto-speaking families refused vaccines for their children, Kamal said.
