Analysis

Reports are circulating online about several groups of people who are boycotting polio vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. One boycott was organized by tribal leaders in Lakki Marwat in support of the families of the factory workers kidnapped by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group. The tribal leaders also threatened to hold widespread protests and block a gas pipeline into Punjab until the abductees were returned. Other groups proposed boycotts to pressure the government to restore access to electricity and gas. Finally, local news outlets reported that female polio workers in the province were conducting a boycott, a claim that the workers disputed as baseless and a conspiracy to create a rift between them and the government.