Thanks to Dr. Vincent Racaniello for tweeting the link to this BBC News report: Karachi polio killings: Vaccination workers shot. Excerpt:
Five female Pakistani polio vaccination workers have been shot dead in a string of co-ordinated attacks - four within 20 minutes across Karachi.
The fifth woman was shot and wounded in the city of Peshawar in the north-west and later died of her injuries.
A UN-backed programme to eradicate polio - which is endemic in Pakistan - has been suspended in Karachi. No group has said it carried out the shootings, but the Taliban have issued threats against the polio drive.
"These were pre-planned and co-ordinated attacks in various localities which took place within a span of 20 minutes," Imran Javed, a police spokesman told the BBC of Tuesday's attacks in Karachi.
Earlier reports said a male health worker had been shot dead in Karachi on Monday, but officials now say his death was not related to the polio vaccination drive.
Key polio battleground
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has condemned the attacks and praised the work of the polio vaccination teams, calling on regional authorities to guarantee their safety, Pakistan's APP news agency reported.
Pakistani health officials said the latest three-day nationwide anti-polio drive - during which an estimated 5.2 million polio drops were to be administered - had been suspended in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city with a population of 18 million.
There has been opposition to such immunisation drives in parts of Pakistan, particularly after a fake CIA hepatitis vaccination campaign helped to locate Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
Militants have kidnapped and killed foreign NGO workers in the past in an attempt to halt the immunisation drives which they say are part of efforts to spy on them.
Along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio is still endemic.
