Home Latest News Kidnapped Health Worker’s Body Found Outside Peshawar

Kidnapped Health Worker’s Body Found Outside Peshawar

by AFP
File Photo. A. Majeed—AFP

File Photo. A. Majeed—AFP

Five men abducted Salma Ghani from her home after she participated in a polio vaccination campaign.

Police on Monday found the bullet-riddled body of a kidnapped female health worker dumped in a field outside Peshawar on Monday, an official said.

Five unidentified men took Salma Ghani, about 32 years old, from outside her house in Peshawar on Sunday.

Senior police official Rahim Shah said Ghani’s body had been recovered from a wheat field on the edge of the city. She had been shot several times, he said. “It is not yet clear whether she was killed for taking part in polio vaccination drives,” Shah said.

Some 56 people have been killed in militant attacks on anti-polio teams in Pakistan since December 2012. Militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban oppose immunization, saying it is a cover for U.S. spying.

Violence, and the threat of it, has badly hampered a campaign to stamp out polio in Pakistan, which along with Nigeria and Afghanistan are the only countries where the disease remains endemic. Pakistan recorded 91 cases of polio last year, up from 58 in 2012, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Victims are left dead, paralyzed or with withered limbs.

Related Articles

1 comment

Jawwad March 25, 2014 - 10:00 am

So unfortunate. Pakistan don’t have much options left to tackle terrorism. Talks would be least effective. Handing over FATA to TTP will be the deal that the ttp wants to achieve. Blood shed will not stop, because lots of TTP is involved in crimes of extortion, drugs and the like to raise funds.

Reply

Leave a Comment