The Tandlianwala police has registered a case against a villager for making provocative speech from a neighbourhood mosque against the anti-polio drive calling the campaign “anti-Islamic” and polio workers “traitors”.
Police said the man went missing after making the speech.
The complaint was filed with Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Sarwar by Irshad Ahmad, in charge of the campaign in the area. He said that a polio team was administering the polio vaccine in Union Council 73 in Chak 431-GB, when Muneer Ahmad, a resident of the same village, spoke from the neighbourhood mosque.
“We heard him saying that polio workers were working on an agenda to make Muslim children handicapped. He said the vaccination was further spreading the disease and that since the campaign had begun, several children had fallen sick.”
Irshad said as Muneer made the announcement, his team was administering vaccine to a child who was already sick. He said the child’s father immediately stopped police workers from giving his child the drops.
He said Muneer urged villagers to “get together against polio workers” and tell them to leave. He said Muneer kept saying that the anti-polio vaccination would spread a plague in the village.
“He kept saying such useless things and there was no one to stop him,” Irshad said in his complaint.
Irshad said minutes after the announcements, several men from the neighbourhood surrounded him and his team. He said they ran for their lives and took shelter at the dera of one of the landlords he knew.
Irshad then informed the Tandlianwala assistant commissioner, who sent a police team, the area tehsildar, the patwari and some other revenue staff to rescue them.
A case was registered against Muneer Ahmad under Section 186 (obstructing a public servant in discharge of duty) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Tandlainwala City Station House Officer Abdul Majeed Gujjar told The Express Tribune that police were looking for Muneer Ahmad.
He said the district administration was told to arrange security for the polio teams who had been assigned to go door-to-door to vaccinate children. He said influential villagers had also been asked to cooperate.
Villagers’ reactions
There were mixed reactions from the villagers after the incident.
Khushi Muhammad, a villager, condemned Ahmed saying people needed to realise that polio vaccination was essential for saving children from potential life-long disability.
Another villager, Yaseen Wattoo, said three of his children who had not been vaccinated had been affected by polio. He said he could not let the same to happen to the rest of his children.
He said it was unfortunate that some ignorant and vulnerable people had believed a man with no credibility and had doubted polio workers’ efforts.
“It is clear that we still need a lot of awareness.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2013.