taliban

Hope for polio eradication takes a bullet

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Karachi

Salma Jaffar, 35, lies on a stretcher, barely able to talk to her relatives on the cell phone.A bullet had pierced her chest and another one her arm just as she was releasing polio vaccine from a dropper into a child’s mouth in Qayyumabad, a locality with mixed ethnicity.

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She saved her life and that of the child who was in her arms by jumping inside the house. But three other members of her team, Anita Zafar, Akbari Begum and Fahad Khalil, were unable to survive the barrage of bullets fired by four men who had come on two motorcycles. A passerby, Ali Asghar, also suffered injuries.

The brazen attack on Tuesday not only jeopardised anti-polio efforts in Karachi, but in the entire province. The vaccination campaign has been suspended for now. Polio workers have also refused to participate in the immunisation campaign across the province until they are provided with adequate security.

Unfortunately, Pakistan is one of the only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria. One of the major reasons for this is the series of Taliban attacks on vaccinators.

The Taliban oppose anti-polio campaigns saying that they are some kind of a “sinister plot to sterilise Muslims”. The World Health Organisation had recently warned that Peshawar was the world’s “largest reservoir” of polio virus.

Seemin Jamali, the in-charge of the Jinnah Hospital’s emergency ward, said the three polio workers were already dead by the time they were brought to the hospital. “The passerby suffered minor injuries and has been discharged, while Salma is still undergoing treatment,” she added.

No security

The biggest question that is being raised following the Qayyumabad attack is about the lack of security for the vaccinators. Korangi Town Health Officer Dr Syed Hussain said the team started off their duties without any security protocol.

“Police were unavailable till 11am, and we thought the area was safe,” he added.

Qayyumabad has a mixed population including Mohajirs, Sindhis and Pakhtuns. “This wasn’t a troubled area like Gadap or Sohrab Goth where vaccinators are attacked. There has never been any problem in this locality during [the previous] anti-polio campaigns,” said Hussain.

Polio vaccinators usually face resistance in the Pakhtun-dominated areas of the city where the Taliban have a significant presence.

The Qayyumabad attack was the first incident of its kind reported in District East of the city.

SSP East Muhammad Shah said police had told the town health officer that the team should not be dispatched before a police van reached there at 11am.

“There has been an increase in reports about extremists gaining a foothold in the area,” he added.

“The standard operating procedure is that all polio teams should leave with security protocol.”

What next?

The attack has left polio workers, who were already worried about their security, more frightened and demoralised. Mazhar Khamesani, the in-charge of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation Sindh, said the anti-polio drive had been suspended in the province until further notice.

He demanded proper security steps for all polio workers in the province. “The morale of our workers has reached its lowest ebb.”

Khamesani said almost 80 percent of the workers were volunteers hired from nearby localities for Rs250 a day with a target of vaccinating 150 children.

Dr Ashfaq Ahmed, a health officer in North Nazimabad, said the attack would make it very hard to motivate vaccinators to continue participating in the campaign.

Muhammad Saeed, who supervises polio teams, said the vaccinators, most of whom were women, were being pressured by their families to stop working because of the dangers involved.

Fatima Ali, a polio worker, said she and her colleagues are labelled brave soldiers, but the fact was that they were just looking to earn some extra money.

“We cannot risk our lives only for a few rupees.”

Seven polio cases were reported in Karachi last year. The Taliban and fundamentalist religious groups propagate that the American CIA is behind the polio vaccination drives as part of a conspiracy against Muslims.

To counter them, aid organisations have distributed pamphlets continuing 24 fatwas in favour of the anti-polio campaign in localities where the vaccinators face resistance, but the attacks continue.

The Sindh chief minister announced Rs500,000 each in compensation for the polio vaccinators slain in Qayyumabad.

Abdus Sattar Edhi, the octogenarian social worker, announced compensation of Rs100,000 for the families of slain health workers.

picture courtesy The News

story originally published here

In Orangi, terror looms over schools

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Attacks and threats by criminal groups forcing students to drop out

Karachi

They had a simple dream: impart education to children in an underprivileged Pakhtun neighbourhood. That was in 1994, when the three friends Waheed, Latif and Amjad had graduated from the Karachi University.

Nineteen years later, Waheed has been murdered, Latif survived an assassination attempt but lost his leg, and Amjad has gone into hiding.

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In Qasba Colony, where the friends lived, they taught children free of charge. Their passion helped them construct a school.

From a single room in 1994, it expanded into a large 20-room building where 800 students of the locality were taught in two shifts.

But this year, the Naunehal Academy, as the school was later named, has suffered consecutive setbacks, reducing the number of its student to a sorry 200.

In May, Waheed, its young, boisterous principal was shot dead. Following his death the school was shut down for a few months. Latif and Amjad relocated. So did, Waheed’s family: a widow, a 10-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter.

On August 15, it reopened amid threats. Three days later, when students were inside their classes, a home-made bomb exploded outside.

Two days passed on in peace, and then in the middle of the night the school was sprayed with bullets.

“The terrorists succeeded in spreading panic in the community. Scared for their lives, the students stopped coming to school,” said Latif, who has left Qasba Colony for a safer place.

“We also received an extortion slip for Rs500,000. It was signed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” he added.

Some days ago, Latif had received a phone call. The caller had said, “We will tear down your house in Qasba if you don’t stop what you are doing.”

Latif said he told them to do whatever they wanted with his house. “It has been empty since Waheed’s death. People make a house… without people a house is worthless.”

The school is running amid security threats. During school hours, policemen in vans patrol the area. In addition, private security guards have also been hired. “They are costing us Rs40,000 every month.”

Amjad and Latif believe that the community, especially the militants in the area, have mistaken them for foreign agents.

They say it was partly because journalists, both from the local and foreign media, frequently visited the school.

But more importantly, the problem started after a polio centre was set up in the school in collaboration with the Rotary Club. “The CIA-funded hepatitis campaign to search for Osama bin Laden is often mistaken as a polio campaign in Pakhtun localities. Perhaps it was that very thing,” said Amjad.

But the plan is to gradually regain the community’s trust. Work only for education and not advocate for any controversial figures.

“It was education that we wanted to impart in our Pakhtun locality. We drifted from our focus,” lamented Amjad.

Latif said it was imperative that the children in the locality received education. “Because if books don’t answer their problems, eventually guns will.”

Growing threat

DSP Faisal Noor, who looks after Orangi Town, accepts there are growing incidents of violence against schools – extortionists to blame for many of the cases. “We can’t single out a single group because several criminals are hiding in this area.”

Schools are increasingly being targeted in Orangi Town. The list includes the Rakhshanda Public School, running for 25 years, which was hit by gunfire in September. The Nation Secondary School came under attack in March. Some men had entered the building on results’ day and opened fire, killing a student and the principal and injuring 12 others.

The Shaheen Public School has also been receiving threats from extortionists.