Tribes close door to polio vaccine in North Waziristan

By
fraaz
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12
159

Tribesmen endorsed a Taliban ban on polio vaccinations on Wednesday, closing the door to the prospect of any child being vaccinated in North Waziristan as part of a nationwide campaign.
Officials had pinned their last hopes of inoculating children in the northwestern district on talks with tribesmen, which were successively delayed until Wednesday, the last day of the nationwide campaign. “Polio vaccination will be banned until drone attacks are stopped,” tribal elder Qadir Khan told a gathering of more than 200 elders and Islamic scholars in Miranshah.
“Drones martyr so many children, while polio afflicts one or two out of hundreds of thousands,” said tribal elder Maamoor Khan. North Waziristan administrator Siraj Ahmed Khan said he had sought to convince the tribesmen to accept the vaccinations for the disease, which leaves children crippled for life.“Polio is rampant in tribal areas and government desires to prevent its spread,” Khan told the meeting.
The polio battle exemplifies the government’s limited writ over the tribal belt, which Washington has called the most dangerous region on Earth as a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda. Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose followers are fighting Western troops in Afghanistan, and the Pakistani Taliban banned vaccinations in North and South Waziristan, risking the health of 240,000 children. They demanded an end to US drone strikes and condemned the campaign as a cover for espionage. A Pakistani doctor was jailed in May after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination programme.
Officials said a further 110,000 children in Khyber Agency also risked going without the vaccine, because of fighting between government troops and warlord Mangal Bagh. The prime minister’s office told AFP that the campaign would be extended until Thursday and Friday in the rest of Pakistan, but said there had been “no change” on the situation in Waziristan.

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12 COMMENTS

  2. There has to be a solution to this quagmire. I do not expect from the Talibans to understand the risk that the polio desease poses to their children. This is a sad and difficult situation. I wish I could say that the commonsense would eventually prevail but I am not too optimistic.

  7. To the list of those martyred at the hands of the Taliban and Al qaida, we must add the names of the children who risk deformity and death because of the Taliban's veto of vaccination programs.

    Yes, DNA from a Pakistani Doctor (a Pathan I believe) obtained during a polio drive, helped get OBL (GOOD) but this shouldn't condemn future Pathan Children to a life of deformity

  8. Very difficult situation! But to some extent tribal people are also right. Drones are killing them and government is not doing anything to save their lives from USA but government is ready to save them from polio. Government is responsible for their deaths in drone attacks. They must be stopped! Tribal people are trying to pressurize government for stopping of drone attacks. They are dying, they will try every thing to stop it. Its human nature. We should put ourselves in their shoes and then decide either they are doing wrong or right.

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