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| India-Pakistan | ||
| Gunmen kill vaccinator in Jamrud | ||
| 2013-12-22 | ||
| PESHAWAR: Two gunmen shot dead a health worker administering polio drops and other vaccines to children in Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal district bordering Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said. The gunmen ordered women and children to leave before shooting dead the vaccinator, Dr Sameen Jan, the top health official in Khyber told AFP. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the killing.
The attacks come despite a recent fatwa by a prominent religious scholar, known as the “Father of the Taliban”, who urged parents to immunise their children against polio and other life-threatening diseases and said vaccinations were compliant with Sharia. Last year the Pakistani Taliban banned polio vaccinations in the tribal region of Waziristan, alleging the campaign was a cover for espionage. Eradication efforts have also suffered due to long-standing rumours that the vaccine was part of a Western plot to sterilise Muslims.
Khan on Wednesday declared polio workers as soldiers of Islam and said those attacking them were not doing any justice to humanity, Islam or Pakistanis. | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |