Taliban blocks UN polio vaccination drive in Pakistan

Taliban blocked the polio vaccination drive in parts Pakistan's North West Frontier Province by threatening to kidnap health officials if they go ahead with the campaign.

Many clerics in the region say the vaccination programme is part of a plot by the West to destroy Islam. They believe taking the vaccine will cause infertility .The Taliban leadership says this is not exactly true, but local leaders continue to oppose polio vaccination in children.Taliban had issued a similar threat in Afghanistan last year, but had to revoke it following protests from the parents. Pakistan had started its polio vaccination campaign in 1994. Since then, the no. of cases reported every year had come down significantly from 20,000 in 1994 to 100 in 2004. But in the last couple of years the threat of polio has come back in the North West Frontier Province after many children were denied the vaccination due to threats from the militants. Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman in the region said:

It is a US tool to cut the population of the Muslims. It is against Islam that you take a medicine before the disease.

Taliban had agreed to allow UN doctors to vaccinate the children as part of the recent peace accord. But they threatened to kidnap doctors if they continue with the campaign.The recent threat was given to the health officials who started the campaign this Monday in Hangu, NWFP. Khan Meer, head of one of the polio teams said:

At around 10 am on Monday, armed Taliban came to the area and told our three-member team to stop vaccinating children. We stopped work in the area immediately after the Taliban warning.