The unusual night-time kidnapping and brutal murder of a female polio vaccinator in the troubled Pakistani city of Peshawar has heightened fears among health workers struggling to stamp out the virus in the face of violent opposition from militant groups.
The body of Salma Farooqi, a 30-year-old who had been involved for years in Peshawar’s battle against polio, was recovered from a field 4km (2.5 miles) from her home on Monday, a day after armed men stormed her house, tied up family members and took her away.
Police said the mother of five had been tortured and repeatedly shot.
Attacks on vaccination teams, many of whom are drawn from the country's 100,000 strong army of “Lady Health Workers”, are common, with more than 30 killed in the last two years. But attacks at their homes are almost unheard of.
Family members said armed men entered the house at about 1am on Sunday morning, after some of them climbed over the boundary wall of the building in Gulozai village on the edge of the frontier city of Peshawar.
The full article continues at http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/25/pakistan-polo-vaccinators-murder-militants-salma-farooqi on The Guardian’s website.