Tuesday 3 January 2012

"Peace Lashkar will make possible polio campaign in Khyber" says chief of Lashkar

LANDIKOTAL: The Akakhel peace Lashkar comprised against all kinds of
militants in Bara will support and help the health workers in the
polio campaign in Bara subdivision of Khyber agency, Chief of Lashkar
told on Tuesday.

 For the first time in five years, health officials said, a polio eradication campaign kicked off in an area where religious extremists hold sway. These extremists believe that polio vaccination was, in
 fact, a ploy by non-believers’ to deprive the new generation of Muslims of their fertility.
 They said that this perception appears to be changing now.A polio vaccination campaign in the Akakhel and other hard areas of Bara subdivision in Khyber agency, was made possible with help from a
local tribal peace Lashkar, known as Akakhel peace Lashkar.

 A health official while pleading anonymity said that health department teams administered drops to as many as 1,161 children below the age of five years in the recent vaccination campaign so far.And said that
 over the next two days the teams will go door-to-door campaign to vaccinate the tribesmen’s children who were missed in the past.
 An official told this scribe that Local political authorities have made elaborate security arrangements for the health teams who received full cooperation from the tribesmen.

 “We are thankful to the political administration and the health department for sending teams to our area to vaccinate our children against polio,” Haji Gul Miran Afridi, chief of the local militia, paradoxically called Amn (peace) Sharista, told The News.
 For the past five years, a paramilitary operation has been ongoing in Bara against the extremists of Lashkar-e-Islam and other militants organizations operation in Khyber agency which also suffered the
 health care facilities along with other basic needs. Haji Gul Miran Afridi offered his unconditional cooperation said that he has already offered his full support to the government polio campaigns on behalf of his militia.
Afridi called upon the government to replicate the polio eradication campaign in other parts of Bara sub-division as well.

 The health department, in coordination with the political administration, also plans on setting up a free medical camp in the upper parts of Khyber agency for the local tribesmen as hundreds of children under the age of five are still missing of the polio vaccinations, he said.

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