The Taliban have stopped the polio vaccination campaign -- launched on Monday -- in Darsmand union council, Tal tehsil, of Hangu, threatening to kidnap health officials if they go ahead with the campaign. "What part about 'primitive' don't youse understand?"
Khan Meer, head of one of the polio teams working in Darsmand, told Daily Times that around 10am on Monday, armed Taliban came to the area and told his three-member team to stop vaccinating children. He said he stopped work in the area immediately after the Taliban warning, and "this is the reason the Taliban have not done anything so far".
"No skin off my fore. They're not my kids."
Gul Rehman -- heading the polio drive in Hangu -- said that no health official had been kidnapped. He said the campaign had been stopped in only one union council, while work was underway in the rest of the areas. "I have given clear directives to the polio teams across the province to stop the drive in case the Taliban show up," said Rehman.
Health officials launched the three-day polio drive in Hangu and Orakzai Agency on Monday. The Orakzai Agency surgeon, Dr Mohammad Ishaq, told reporters that polio vaccine would be administered to 83,674 children in the agency and 92,418 children in Hangu.
Separately, officials said that unidentified men had kidnapped a renowned NWFP businessman, Meer Zaki Shah, from Shanawarai area. Police said the armed men kidnapped the businessman while he was taking his children home from school.
Hangu DSP Muhammad Farid Khattak told Daily Times that he had formed a special team and launched an operation to recover Zaki.