Ghanaian doctor working for UN shot in Pakistan

A Ghanaian doctor working for the United Nations was today July 17, 2012 shot by gunmen in Pakistan when he was on a polio vaccination mission in that country. The doctor has not been named.

The gunmen opened fire on a UN vehicle in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, wounding the doctor working on a polio immunisation campaign and a local driver, reports the AFP citing officials.

The shooting, which happened in the low-income eastern neighbourhood of Soharb Ghoth on Tuesday, was the latest sign of disturbing resistance to a widely publicised three-day vaccination campaign, which began on Monday.

The Taliban is said to have banned immunisations in the northwest, 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.

Confirming the incident, the AFP quoted Maryam Yunus, spokesperson for the United Nations’ World Health Organisation (WHO) as saying “A WHO vehicle was fired upon with gunshots. One international staff and one local driver were injured in the incident.”

She said the doctor from Ghana and the Pakistani driver had been transferred to a private hospital in the southern port city where their condition was stable.

“They are out of danger,” Yunus said, according the news agency.

Local police station chief Mohammad Sultan said 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,” Sultan said but according to the AFP, the 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”.

By Ekow Quandzie