'Polio drops' become poison and un-Islamic in Pak

Islamabad, Jun 14: Taking the issue of religious sensitivity to new heights, a cleric in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh has declared the '

campaigns' "un-Islamic'' and made a dramatic announcement in a local mosque that jihad should be carried out against the visiting polio

team.

In a report that appeared in The Express Tribune, a local polio vaccination team visited Muzaffargarh's rural Khan Pur Bagga Sher area to administer polio drops and asked the cooperation of local families in the endeavour. This was when the cleric, Maulvi Ibrahim Chisti intervened and went ahead and made the announcement in the biggest local mosque in the area and stated that polio drops are ''poison'' and against Islam.

The cleric went a step ahead and added that if the polio team forced anybody to be part of the vaccination attempt then jihad was ''the only option''.

Flustered with the announcement, the polio team abandoned the immunisation camp and returned to Muzaffargarh city and reported the turn of events to the Health Executive District Officer, who in turn informed the District Coordination Officer.

A police inquiry has been ordered, following which a raid was carried out in the cleric's area. Chisti, however, managed to flee from the area before the police arrived. Residents claimed that the cleric tried to convince them that the polio campaign was a ''western conspiracy'' to render the population impotent.

Following the police raid, the polio team returned to Khan Pur Bagga Sher to carry on with their polio immunisation campaign.

OneIndia News