The Islamist terrorist group Jundullah has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on volunteers working to provide basic life-saving care and help eradicate polio in Pakistan through vaccination. There have been occasional attacks on health workers in the region in the past, but nine killings in several days sparked calls for central and regional Pakistani officials to better guarantee the young volunteers' safety. (WARNING: Graphic images) (10 PHOTOS)
Killers Target Pakistan's Polio Workers
Updated
1
Rukhsana Bibi weeps next to the body of her daughter Madiha, a slain polio-eradication worker, in an ambulance outside Jinnah Hospital in Karachi on December 18. (Reuters/Akhtar Soomro)
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The bodies of two female polio-eradication workers lie in the morgue of Jinnah Hospital in Karachi on December 18, when six killings and a further attack all targeted such volunteers. (Reuters/Akhtar Soomro)
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A rescue worker inspects blood-stained paperwork that was being carried by Nasima Bibi, who was shot and killed by gunmen in Karachi on December 18. (Reuters/Athar Hussain)
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The feet of a slain antipolio worker are tied by rescue workers after her body was brought to Jinnah Hospital morgue in Karachi on December 18. (Reuters/Akhtar Soomro)
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Women wait with their children for polio vaccinations on the second day of a vaccination campaign in western Afghanistan in October. Attackers have targeted health workers there, too, including a deadly shooting in eastern Afghanistan on December 1. (AFP/Aref Karimi)
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Antipolio worker Hilal Khan receives treatment at a Peshawar hospital after he was shot and gravely injured by unidentified gunmen on December 19. (Reuters/Khuram Parvez)
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Pakistani polio-vaccination workers demonstrate against the recent killings of their colleagues in Islamabad on December 19. Militants suggest "infidels" are behind polio-eradication efforts. (AFP/Aamir Qureshi)
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A polio worker gives polio vaccine drops to a child at Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar on December 19. (Reuters/Fayaz Aziz)
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A polio-vaccination worker gives polio vaccine drops to a young girl in Peshawar, Pakistan on December 19. (AFP/A. Majeed)
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A woman from the All Pakistan Lady Health Workers Welfare Association defaces a poster that condemns the polio-eradication drive during a protest in Islamabad against the recent killings. (Reuters/Faisal Mahmood)
