Daily Times

While humanitarian organisations hold out hope for the complete elimination of poliovirus by 2023, Wednesday’s attack on a polio team in the Bannu district speaks volumes about how the battle is far from over. Although health workers remained unscathed, a policeman deployed on security duty was martyred.

In the twenty-third year of the New Age, obstruction of healthcare is rife in Pakistan where incidents of violence have more than doubled, according to a US-based report. With casually sent threats to undermine the healthcare providers’ ability to meet vaccination targets, it would not be a gross exaggeration to proclaim these selfless souls and those who guard them with their lives as true warriors standing in the line of fire.

There are serious concerns about the broader increase in insecurity, which deliberately targets such programmes to sow the seeds of chaos. Terrorist groups like the TTP have murdered dozens of polio workers and their security personnel in a bid to put an end to Pakistan’s crusade against a disease that cripples its victims for life. Just last week, two more policemen lost their lives in a similar attack in Quetta. An attack near Mustang in May also martyred a policeman guarding those involved in door-to-door polio vaccination campaigns. These heart-wrenching instances, when the campaign remains suspended in hotspots and the international community is demanding viable progress, demand a concerted line of action from the authorities.

Similarly, initiatives must be designed to counter the vicious propaganda that discourages the masses from vaccinating their children. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where modern advances in healthcare have not yet overcome the disease. Unless the threat of deadly violence against those who partake in the noble mission is not adequately dealt with (an iron hand), not much can be hoped to improve on the ground. *