That some of the killing was outcome of a family dispute is a story, one wouldn't buy it. The truth is that if a determined effort is afoot to secure our children from the life-long disability brought about by polio and get Pakistan de-listed from the category of worst-affected counties the terrorists also appear set on keeping subverting that effort. They have already a huge chunk of tribal territory especially the North and South Waziristan agencies, and are now spreading their deadly tentacles to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and some localities of Karachi which have unfortunately earned the euphemism of 'Karachi's Fata'.
If fighting back anti-polio immunisation death squads are difficult, as presently it seems to be, changing the mindset that creates such murderous zombies would be much more challenging, given paucity of work on the part of government and concerned quarters in this psychological warfare. Of the arguments against the anti-polio vaccination drives, some are quite well-known. They claim anti-polio drops cause infertility, which as Maulana Fazlullah of Swat, would often claim is part of a 'conspiracy by Americans to sexually sterilise children and thereby contain increase of Muslim populations'. In the 1960s and 70s similar argument was made against family planning, and it had worked to great extent. Then there is the argument that the polio vaccination staff is being used for espionage purposes, citing 'the fake CIA vaccination campaign that helped 'locate' Osama bin Laden. So the first battlefront against detractors of polio immunisation drive has to be fought in the minds of the people. This battle has been successfully fought in most of the Muslim-majority countries, a victory that's so much winnable in Pakistan also provided our religious leadership comes to the fore and drives home the point that a polio-ridden Muslim child cannot be equal to normal child anywhere else. Let us hope that the Ulema raise their voice against this mindless massacre.
That the police should be deputed to provide protection to inadequately paid foreign-funded lady workers to secure the nation's most precious asset is nothing more than a fatal oversight. Health and education are the most potent contributors to nation-building, but in our case it is being relegated as if it's somebody else's responsibility; a failure made all the more crippling by the 18th constitutional amendment that takes life out of these two essential building blocks. Instead of treating polio vaccination as an errand to appease international public opinion the government should institutionalise it as part of the health ministries as its full-time responsibility. At the same time, in deference to our obtaining security situation the donors and agencies that assist Pakistan in these campaigns may not insist on fixing nameplates on them. That in Pakistan polio-killers are being killed with impunity with entire nation being a helpless watcher is a situation which is unbelievably diabolic.