Gunmen opened fire on a UN vehicle here on Tuesday, wounding a foreign doctor working on a polio immunisation campaign and a local driver, officials said. The shooting, which happened in Soharb Goth, highlighted resistance to a widely publicised three-day vaccination campaign, which began on Monday.
The Taliban have banned immunisations in the north-west, condemning the campaign as a cover for espionage since a Pakistani doctor was jailed after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination programme.
"A WHO vehicle was fired upon with gunshots. One international staff and one local driver were injured in the incident," Maryam Yunus, spokeswoman for the United Nations' World Health Organisation, told AFP.
She said the doctor from Ghana and the Pakistani driver had been transferred to a private hospital where their condition was stable. "They are out of danger," Yunus said. Attacks on foreigners are rare in Karachi, but parts of the city are highly volatile. Ethnic, sectarian and politically-linked violence has killed at least 740 people in the city so far this year alone, rights activists say.
Police blamed the shooting on two Afghan men. Soharb Goth neighbourhood is home to thousands of Afghan refugees and migrants from north-west Pakistan looking for work in what is Pakistan's largest city, with a population of 18 million.
The UN staff were travelling in an unmarked, white double-cabin pick-up. Local TV channels broadcast footage of bullet holes in the vehicle.
WHO said later Tuesday that there was currently "no evidence to suggest that this was a deliberate or targeted attack against polio eradication efforts or WHO".
It paid tribute to the "incredible bravery" of more than 200,000, mainly Pakistani volunteers who run every vaccination campaign, and said the shooting would not derail efforts to eradicate polio in the country.
But police suggested that the doctor could have been targeted deliberately, because he had been working in the neighbourhood for about three months.
"It could be related to the polio campaign, as there is resistance in the population against it. We are, however, still investigating the real motives," local police station chief Mohammad Sultan told AFP.
A health expert, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, also interpreted the attack as a sign of an alarming trend.
He said there had been threats and announcements in mosques branding the vaccine anti-Islam and blamed "a new wave of attacks on polio workers" on the CIA's use of Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi to help find bin Laden.
The doctor was jailed for 33 years in May after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination programme as cover.
"It has become a very serious and critical issue. People suspect foreigners' involvement in the programme and fake campaign by Afridi has given further credence to conspiracy theory," he said.
He said polio workers were beaten in the capital Islamabad on Monday, a team fired on in the southern town of Jacobabad, and a motorcycle stolen in the south-western town of Ziarat.
"It is an alarming situation because neither the government, nor international aid agencies have a clear strategy to deal with this issue," he said.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.
The Taliban ban and insecurity have forced officials to postpone inoculations in parts of Pakistan's north-western tribal belt, jeopardising the health of more than 350,000 children.
Pakistan says 34 million children under five will be targeted in the campaign, which runs until Wednesday.
The highly infectious disease affects mainly the under-fives and can cause paralysis in a matter of hours. Some cases can be fatal.
The Lancet medical journal has said vaccination problems led last year to Pakistan's highest number of polio cases in a decade, 198, compared to 144 in 2010.-AFP
BR staff reporter adds: A polio worker of United Nations (UN) got bullet wounds when a UN vehicle on Tuesday afternoon came under an armed attack in the limits of Sohrab Goth police station.
According to police sources, unidentified armed riders sprayed a volley of bullets on UN vehicle (X-68-3686) when it was moving towards Hassan Noman Colony located behind Al-Asif Square.
The injured person, who was identified as Constand-Dedo son of David Rahoja, received single bullet on his abdomen and was shifted to private hospital.
SHO Sohrab Goth Sultan said the injured person, who was African, was polio worker of UN and at the time of incident, he was going to kick off polio campaign at Hassan Noman colony. He said it is premature to say anything about the incident as investigation was underway. No case was registered till filing of this report.