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Islamabad: The Pakistani authorities on Tuesday launched a crackdown on the people behind a conspiracy to sabotage a countrywide polio vaccination campaign by faking illness in children and provoking angry protests in the north-western city of Peshawar.
Panic and fear gripped the city on Monday as angry parents set a hospital on fire and held polio vaccination workers hostage for some time after fake news and videos made the rounds on social media about children falling ill due to polio drops. “A case has been registered against 12 people behind the conspiracy,” Babar Bin Atta, the prime minister’s spokesman on polio matters, told dpa. Raids are being conducted to arrest them, he said.
Atta said that it all started in a school which was taking part in the campaign for the first time after years of refusing polio drops for its pupils. A teacher had asked children to fake illness and rushed them to hospital, he said. (dpa)
Panic and fear gripped the city on Monday as angry parents set a hospital on fire and held polio vaccination workers hostage for some time after fake news and videos made the rounds on social media about children falling ill due to polio drops. “A case has been registered against 12 people behind the conspiracy,” Babar Bin Atta, the prime minister’s spokesman on polio matters, told dpa. Raids are being conducted to arrest them, he said.
Atta said that it all started in a school which was taking part in the campaign for the first time after years of refusing polio drops for its pupils. A teacher had asked children to fake illness and rushed them to hospital, he said. (dpa)
