Three people, including two women, were killed when a polio team was attacked on Tuesday in Karachi’s Qayyumabad area.
According to police, armed attackers riding motorcycles attacked the anti-polio workers who were busy in administering polio drops to the infants in Karachi East area of Qayyumabad. As a result of firing, three workers including two women were killed while two others sustained injuries.
After the incident, two more workers went missing. Police feared that they might have been abducted by the miscreants or have sought refuge to safe their lives.
Jinnah Hospital Deputy Director Dr Seemi Jamali said that three persons were brought to the hospital out of which two women had died on their way. The injured included an anti-polio worker and a passerby.
The attack comes a day after Sindh health authorities began to inoculate some 7.6 million children of the province with polio vaccine as part of a nationwide drive that is to continue until Thursday. The first day of the immunisation campaign had concluded without any untoward incident.
The children of Sindh are among the over 33 million Pakistani children who are being administered with anti-polio vaccine during the National Immunisation Days (NIDs), scheduled to continue until January 23.
Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio is still endemic, but efforts to stamp out the crippling disease have been hit by repeated attacks on health teams.
Officials blame the violence and suspicions about the vaccine for a surge in cases.
