# 8069
Via Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, we get the sad news that another series of attacks has killed three Polio workers and/or their protection details in Pakistan. Over the past year we’ve seen a number of horrific coordinated attacks made against aid workers, either involved with or associated with the Polio Vaccination drives in Pakistan.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Three Killed After Pakistan Resumes Antipolio Campaign
At least three people have been killed in Pakistan's tribal areas after the resumption of an antipolio campaign.
RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal reports that gunmen shot and killed two police officers assigned to protect a team of polio-vaccination workers in northwestern Pakistan.The incident occurred north of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, on December 13.
Reports said the attackers fled the scene.There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
In a second incident, Esmattulah Wazir, a political administrator in the tribal areas, said unknown assailants shot dead a polio worker named Yousef in his home.
The campaign against immunization by the Taliban began eight years ago, but appears to have gained greater ferocity after it was disclosed that a sham hepatitis vaccination campaign was used as a CIA cover in the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden (see Maryn McKenna’s Update: Pakistan, Polio, Fake Vaccines And The CIA).
Additionally, many believe that vaccinations are part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslims, a notion that some local clerics have helped foster.
The recent detection of Polio in Syria (see WHO: Update On Polio Detection In Syria) has been genetically linked to a poliovirus circulating in Pakistan, making the containment and eradication of this virus in that country a global concern.
