Pakistan: Polio Workers Attacked

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/world/asia/pakistan-polio-workers-attacked.html

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Gunmen riding a motorcycle shot and killed a police officer protecting polio workers during a United Nations-backed vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, the police said. The attack took place as dozens of polio workers were going door to door to vaccinate children in Gullu Dheri village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Officer Izhar Shah said, adding, “The anti-polio drive in that village has been suspended.” Some Islamic militants oppose the vaccination campaign, accusing health workers of acting as spies for the United States and claiming that the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile. Pakistan is one of the few remaining places where polio is still rampant. Suspicion of vaccination campaigns has increased since the C.I.A. used a hepatitis vaccination campaign to try to collect blood samples from Osama bin Laden’s family in 2011 to confirm his location.