Two polio campaign workers shot, wounded in Pakistan; WHO says no sign attack was deliberate

Jul 19 2012

"Gunmen in Pakistan shot and wounded a staff member of the World Health Organization (WHO) and an expatriate consultant working for the United Nations health agency on Tuesday, the WHO said," Reuters reports (Nebehay, 7/17). "The attack was a further blow to the three-day polio vaccination drive, which had already been stymied in some parts of the country by Taliban threats. Attacks on international aid workers in Karachi have been rare," according to the New York Times (Walsh, 7/17). WHO said in a statement there was "no evidence to suggest that this was a deliberate or targeted attack against polio eradication efforts or WHO," Agence France-Presse notes (Mansoor, 7/16). BBC News writes, "No group has said it carried out the shooting, but the Taliban have issued threats against the polio drive" (7/17). "A ban on polio vaccinations imposed by the Taliban could affect about 280,000 children living in tribal areas of northwest Pakistan, according to estimates from the [WHO]," CNN reports (Park, 7/17).