MINGORA, June 9: In an unprecedented development, the local Taliban are gearing up for the special polio vaccination campaign in troubled areas of Swat where vaccination has not taken place for one year.

“We are in the forefront of the polio vaccination campaign. We will accompany health workers in areas where people have so far been refusing vaccination,” said Muslim Khan, a spokesman for Swat’s Taliban.

He said they were bound to follow the peace agreement with the provincial government and would cooperate in making the vaccination campaign a success. He said he was constantly in touch with the local administration and would ensure that all children were vaccinated during the three-day campaign.

District Coordination Officer Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, who held a meeting with Taliban’s representatives ahead of the campaign last night, told Dawn that there were some problems in Matta and Kabal areas. He said he would visit the areas along with the Taliban to take stock of the situation.

He said that last night some unidentified people had warned area residents against polio vaccination, adding the Taliban had disowned the people and “allowed the administration to shoot at sight those creating hurdles in the campaign”.

Mr Yousafzai said he was confident that the Taliban would support the drive and hoped that the target of vaccinating 360,000 children would be achieved.

Health officials said 41 of 65 union councils in the area were completely accessible. Of the remaining union councils, 15 were partially accessible and nine were inaccessible for polio teams.

“We have decided to conduct the campaign in trouble-free areas only,” they said, adding the DCO had directed the polio staff to conduct the campaign in peaceful areas.

They said they had held a meeting with the naib nazim of the Bar Abakhel Union Council, who had refused to cooperate with the polio staff in view of the free movement of militants. They said they had also met local militants in Shakardara, who did not respond positively regarding polio vaccination. Officials said they were told by the militants that they would communicate it to their higher authorities, but they had not replied yet.

KHAR: The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan has said it had neither created obstacles in the way of polio vaccination in the past, nor will it do it in future.

“We are neither against the anti-polio campaign, nor in favour of it. Those refusing polio drops are doing it on their own. The Taliban have never stopped anyone from getting polio drops,” said Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesmen Maulvi Mohammad Omar.

Talking to Dawn, he said the TTP was not against any medication aiming to benefit human health and claimed that they were also not against women’s education.

As far as polio vaccination was concerned, he said, the Taliban’s central Shura had not yet decided whether to support or oppose it, but still they were not against it.

“We have some reservations regarding the efficacy of polio vaccines, but the TTP will give its version only if an established Islamic institution gives an edict on it,” he said.

Meanwhile, agency surgeon Dr Jahanzeb Khan told journalists that 212,000 children would be vaccinated in the region with the help of more than 1,300 vaccinators and supervisors.

He said no polio case had been recorded in the agency since 2006, but the virus still circulated in the troubled region.

He said that last year due to some resistance in the Sheikhano Banda area of the Salarzai tehsil had left about 550 children without vaccination and only 106 children had been vaccinated there. The area, he said, had been declared a ‘no-go’ area after the killing of Dr Abdul Ghani Khan, agency surgeon, last year.

One year ago, he said, the number of refusal cases in the entire agency was 5,000, which had now reduced to 2,500.

BATKHELA: The EDO, health, Dr Bakht Zada, during a press briefing, said 113,000 children would be vaccinated in the area by 397 teams.

LAKKI MARWAT: The district health department has been able to reduce the number of polio vaccine refusal cases from 2,800 to 2,206 in the district thanks to launching of social mobilisation and polio eradication campaigns since the start of the current year.