Police arrested three men for beating up two polio vaccinators on Friday, the latest case of violence against health workers seeking to immunise children against the crippling disease.
A scuffle broke out when two polio vaccinators visited the family’s home for a second time Thursday to double check that they hadn’t missed any children out of the polio immunisation campaign. The health workers and the men of the house got into a fight after the family said there were no children at home, a local police official said.
Police officer Mohammad Kamran said that police arrested three men on the complaint of the polio vaccinators after about 60 health workers held a protest outside the police station.
The three men – from the low-income Siddique Colony neighbourhood – were arrested but later released on bail.
“Since beating someone is a bailable offence, the trio was released on bail later,” Kamran told reporters.
Mohammad Usman, the supervisor of the vaccination team, said that the men became irritated because the health workers knocked on their door twice in the same day when there weren’t any children in the house.
The vaccinators always visit homes a second time to be sure they haven’t missed children who need to be immunised, Usman added.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic.
