Police with the suspects' brothers. Photo: Geo News

HYDERABAD: Unidentified people assaulted a polio vaccination team in Heerabad Qureshi area of the city on Tuesday after a reported disagreement.

The anti-polio team did not have a police escort with it. Following the incident, the vaccination campaign in the area has been suspended for now.

Police officials said the incident was caused after male members of a family began arguing with a polio team that had administered vaccination drops to eligible children. 

Anti-polio campaigns begin in Sindh, KP and FATA

The campaign in Sindh primarily targets 7,127,711 children under the age of five

Polio officials Naveed, Kainat and Jannat claim they had the family's permission to administer the vaccine but were assaulted by the male members as they did not want their children to take the drops. 

Following the incident, police arrived on scene but the attackers had left. However, police detained two people, reported to be brothers of the attackers, and are investigating the case after lodging a report on the complaint of the polio team. 

The Emergency Operation Centre for Polio launched on Monday an anti-polio campaign until Friday (November 3) in 21 districts/towns of Sindh.

Members of the polio team lodging a complaint with the police. Photo: Geo News

 

These districts include Karachi, Dadu, Ghotki, Jaccobabad, Kambar, Kashmore, Larkana, Shikarpur, Sukkur, Badin, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Matiari, Naushero Feroz, Sanghar, SBA, Sajjawal, Thatta and Jamshoro.

Five cases of the crippling disease were registered so far this year. 

Polio cases have been on a decline in the country with 54 and 20 cases reported in the years 2015 and 2016 respectively, as opposed to 306 cases in 2014.