GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Gunmen in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi attacked a UN vehicle, injuring a World Health Organization doctor working on a polio immunization drive Tuesday 17 July.
The attack on a Ghanian doctor and his driver came a day after the Taliban reiterated a ban on the polio immunization campaign in the tribal area, the militant-controlled area bordering Afghanistan. The two were traveling in an unmarked white pickup van.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but local police blame the shooting on two Afghans.
Pakistan launched its latest three-day polio immunization campaign on Monday. The WHO says a ban on the vaccine drive in the tribal area would put some 280,000 children at risk.
A fake polio immunization drive set up by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had helped to locate Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad last year.
Pakistan is one of three remaining countries where polio is still rife. The other two are Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Links to other sources: CNN, The Guardian, Aljazeera
