Officials said that the Pakistani police had arrested the main suspect in the gang rape of an armed polio worker, who was attacked by three men last week during a vaccination campaign. Two other suspects remain at large.
The attack on Thursday, in Jacobabad district, in southern Sindh, was part of a wave of attacks against polio vaccination teams that were going door-to-door in Pakistan.
Local police official Mohammad Saifal reported that the woman who was assaulted had alerted authorities. She said she was raped after entering a Jacobabad house to give polio drops to the children in the home.
Saifal said that the suspect, Ahmad Jakhrani was arrested overnight.
Saifal stated that the police are still looking for the arrest of two other men who were accused of assaulting the woman in turn. Saifal said that the local police chief and district administrator had been fired due to negligence after the attack for not providing adequate security for the polio workers.
Many Pakistanis were shocked by the attack, as sexual assaults like this are uncommon. However, women polio workers who have worked in campaigns before have complained about harassment. Sindh’s provincial government has announced that it will investigate the case.
The husband of the woman who was assaulted by the police has also been detained. He allegedly threatened to kill the victim after she had been raped and for having thrown her out of her home.
Sadia Javed said that other people involved in the rape would be arrested soon.
She said, “We protect the victim.” “The government will ensure that all female polio workers are protected to the maximum during upcoming anti-polio campaigns.”
In Pakistan, so-called honor murders are common. These are killings of women or girls by their relatives who are accused of dishonoring a family’s reputation.
Saifal said that police had been dispatched to the house, where the woman now lives with her family for her safety.
Violence is a regular part of anti-polio campaigns. Militants target police and polio vaccination teams, claiming falsely that these campaigns are part of a Western conspiracy designed to sterilize children.
Pakistan has reported 17 cases of polio since January. This puts at risk decades of work to eradicate the potentially deadly, paralyzing illness from the country. Children under the age of 5 are most commonly affected by polio, which is spread through contaminated drinking water.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries where polio is still a problem.
Anwarul Haq overseeing polio campaigns for Pakistan said the government plans to conduct another vaccination campaign in October.
