Armed men abducted and beat 11 health workers sent to a tribal area to administer polio vaccinations to children on Tuesday, forcing the suspension of the campaign, officials said. Tribesmen in the Bajaur tribal district bordering Afghanistan refused to allow the vaccinations to take place after hearing rumours that the drive was a 'US plot' to sterilise Muslim children, residents said. "We have suspended the vaccination drive in Charming area after our vaccination team was kidnapped and beaten up by armed men there," local health director Chiragh Shah told AFP.The health workers were held for four hours as their captors smashed vaccination kits, Shah said. Health officials had been trying to dispel rumours - sometimes spread by radio stations or from the loudspeakers of mosques - that the polio campaign was a Western conspiracy to reduce Muslim populations.
World Health Organisation officials have said they still face difficulties gaining access to what they regard as 'high-risk' tribal areas, including North Waziristan, Bajaur and Khyber. Pakistan, one of only four countries where polio is still endemic, launched a vaccination drive on Tuesday aimed towards inoculating 32 million children.
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