PESHAWAR: The Peshawar district administration has submitted a report to Chief Secretary recommending strict action against the owners of private Schools, members of union councils and Individuals for propaganda against anti-polio drops.
The report has identified the schools as Darul Qalam Model School, Rozatul Atfal School in Mera Kachori, lqra School, Hall Mark School in Hassan Garhi, Peshawar Cambridge School UC Khazana, Muslim Standard School, Oxford School Pine Breeze School, Crescent School City Homes and lqra Rozatul Atfal School in Jhagra. The schools were accused of creating unnecessary hype and for damaging the national cause. Furthermore, the authority has asked the government to cancel the registration of all the above schools.
The report has also recommended legal action be taken against Amjad, Nazim UC-180, Amjadullah Niab Nazim-181 and Kareem VC Nazim 171 whose has allegedly played a negative role that resulted in the creation of hype in the entire district and mob attack on Basic Health Unit in Mashokhel
Legal action was also recommended against all those who made the mosque announcement and created psychological fear in the general public and damaged the program. They were identified a Qari Shaeer Zaman, Ikram, Tawas Khan, Hameed and Sajid all are the residents of Masho Khel village. Meanwhile Wahidullah, Mawaz Khan is the residents of Adezai, who are accused of making announcements against polio drops in mosques on April 23.
The FIA was also recommended taking action against those who played a negative role on social media accounts which were used as the main tool of this propaganda campaign against polio drops. The report has concluded that all the polio vaccines provided to the children were safe but it was only the negative propaganda due to which thousands of children were rushed to the hospitals.
It started with rumours of children fainting or vomiting after they received a vaccination against the polio virus in a village in Peshawar. Then clerics at local mosques in the region blared warnings through loudspeakers, ordering parents not to let health workers immunize their children against the deadly disease. As the rumours spread, thousands of panicked parents rushed their children by car, motorcycle, and foot to major hospitals in the city.
