Feroz Shah, a spokesman for the district administration in Peshawar, said 471 people had been imprisoned in the city and surrounding villages under government orders on charges of endangering public security.
Parents targeted by police were not arrested if they agreed to vaccinate their children, said Shakirullah Khan, a senior police officer in Peshawar.
Authorities have previously made scattered arrests for polio refusals, but such a widespread crackdown is rare.
“This is the first time such drastic action was taken,” Shah said. “This shows the determination of the government to eradicate polio.”
Just to emphasize the point here, these are parents of children who are being rounded up and thrown into jail in Pakistan. Not terrorists, not murders, not thieves, but parents who do not want their children to receive the polio vaccine.
As can be seen in the photo above, the oral polio vaccine is being given right on the street, and not in a clinic. How many times were these children forced to receive this vaccine? How would the health worker even know the vaccine history of these children? Do they have pre-existing conditions that would make the vaccine a risk to harm them?
It would seem such basic health questions could not be answered when the order is to vaccinate every child by force right on the street, with no objections allowed.