Three die in attack on polio team in North Waziristan
Two police officers and a polio worker were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them in Datta Khel tehsil, North Waziristan, on Tuesday. The deceased were shifted to the Miranshah district headquarters (DHQ) hospital.
A polio immunization campaign was launched in North Waziristan on June 9 after 11 positive cases were detected this year.
An emergency committee meeting of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in February found that vaccine refusals due to misinformation, cultural barriers and/or political leveraging by communities, a lack of female frontline healthcare workers, a high turnover rate of frontline healthcare workers, poor healthcare infrastructures, and weak service delivery were major factors that contributed to the emergence of back-to-back cases in the tribal regions.
Since the meeting, Pakistan reported 11 cases of wild polio virus type 1 (WPV1) in North Waziristan and two positive environmental samples from Bannu.
Police crackdown against JKLF march
A Mufazaffarabad protest rally organized by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) against the conviction of its founder and Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik was intercepted by police Monday evening.
On May 25, Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court under allegedly trumped-up terrorism charges.
The march, which set off from Bhimber on Sunday and reached Muzaffarabad on Monday, attempted to reach the UN Military Observers Office to submit a protest letter. Police however halted the march, and baton-charged and tear-gassed protesters.
Girl murdered for free-will marriage in Bahawalnagar
On Sunday, two men along with five accomplices opened fire on their newly-wed sister and her husband, killing the former and critically injuring the latter in an honour-related incident in Chishtian, Bahawalnagar district.
According to the survivor’s mother, Kulsoom, her son Hakim Ali and Saba married of their free-will a few days back. The couple was forced out of their village, and settled in a rented apartment in Chishtian. The complainant told police that the couple continued to receive threats from Saba’s family.
On the day of the incident, her daughter-in-law’s brothers, identified as Sohail and Sohaib, and five other men barged into the couple’s home and tortured them. The suspects opened fire on the newly-weds, killing Saba on the spot while Hakim Ali received life-threatening bullet injuries. He was shifted to the Chishtian tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital, but was later transferred to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital due to the severity of his condition.
While Chishtian A-Division Police have registered a case against seven persons, including Saba’s brothers, on Kulsoom’s complaint, the suspects have yet to be apprehended.
