QUETTA: Anti-polio drive in Quetta was suspended on Friday as the police refused to provide security to polio workers.
According to details, the police while reasoning the lack of resources rejected the availability of security to the polio teams after which the drive was halted.
Security of polio teams was made compulsory after last year attack in which three polio workers including two women were killed.
It is pertinent to mention here that 3500 police officials are deployed in the metropolis among which 2000 are rendering their services for VIP security.
Health teams in Pakistan have been attacked repeatedly since the Taliban denounced vaccines as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims and imposed bans on inoculation in June 2012.
There is evidence in tests conducted on sewage samples in some of the country s major cities that the polio virus is starting to spread beyond these isolated pockets and could soon spark fresh polio outbreaks in more densely populated areas.
INP
