Four polio workers shot dead in Pakistan

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Press Trust of India Karachi/Islamabad
Last Updated : Jan 21 2014 | 7:59 PM IST
Four anti-polio workers, including two women, were today killed in attacks in different parts of Pakistan on people engaged in a vaccination campaign against the crippling disease.
In the southern port city of Karachi, two woman workers and a man were killed and two others injured when unidentified gunmen fired at them in Qayummabad area. The team was working without any security.
According to witnesses, four armed men were waiting in the area and attacked the team as soon as it entered the neighbourhood.
Unidentified armed men opened fire at a vaccination team at Mansehra in the country's restive northwest and killed one worker, The Express Tribune reported on its website.
At Panjgur in Balochistan province, unidentified persons snatched a car from a vaccination team.
The attacks came a day after health authorities in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, launched a drive to inoculate 7.6 million children as part of a nationwide campaign against polio that will continue till Thursday.

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The first day of the drive concluded without any untoward incident.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio is still endemic, but efforts to stamp out the disease have been hit by repeated attacks on health teams. Pakistan registered more than 80 polio cases last year.
This was not the first attack on a polio team in Karachi. In July 2012, a foreign doctor was injured when armed men opened fire on a UN vehicle in Sohrab Goth area.
Most attacks on polio workers in Karachi have occurred in areas on the outskirts of the city that are considered Taliban strongholds.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan remains strongly committed to eradicating polio this year.
The anti-polio campaign hit a wall in June 2012, when the Pakistani Taliban banned vaccinations in the tribal belt, saying the restriction would last till US drone strikes cease.
Militants and gunmen have frequently attacked vaccination teams, accusing them of being Western spies and part of a plot to "sterilise" Muslims.

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First Published: Jan 21 2014 | 7:59 PM IST

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