Asifa Bhutto Zardari, the daughter of late former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Ali Bhutto and current President Asif Ali Zardari, Sunday defiantly vowed that the country's anti-polio campaign would continue, despite the killing of nine health workers by extremists opposed to the vaccination programme.
Asifa's statement came in the wake of killings of nine health workers by alleged Talibani militants who were opposing the polio vaccination campaigning citing it 'anti-islamic' and 'conspiracy of western countries against Muslims'.
They had killed nine health workers one after one in different parts of the country which caused partially halt of UN's polio eradication campaign.
Pakistan is one of the last three countries in the world where the disease remains endemic, reports The Independent.
Goodwill ambassador for polio eradication, 19-year-old Asifa Bhutto Zardari, said new ways to protect health workers were being worked out and that she expected vaccinations would quickly resume. She added that the polio vaccine can save millions and it is not against Islam, but to promote healthy children.
It was not clear initially who was behind the violence as many Islamists, including Taliban militants, have long opposed the campaign. Some say it aims to sterilise Muslims, others that it has been used by US intelligence as a cover for espionage. One militant commander said the programme would not continue unless attacks by US drone aircraft stopped.
UN officials estimate that 3.5 million children missed vaccinations this week. The mission to stamp out polio had been started by Asifa's mother, Benazir Bhutto, then Pakistan's Prime Minister, who was killed in a bomb attack in 2007.
Pakistan had 20,000 polio cases in 1994, but vigorous vaccination efforts had brought the number down to just 56 in 2012, according to the government. The most recent figures show that Pakistan has now gone seven months without a single reported case of one of the two strains of polio found there.
To date, Polio has been banished from everywhere except Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
--With ANI Inputs--
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