Nearly 40,000 children in the insurgency-hit northeastern province of Badakhshan in Afghanistan have been left without the polio vaccine, said Noor Kharwari, the provincial health director. 

A report published in Afghanistan Times says, the Taliban insisted, in the areas they control, that vaccination should be carried out in clinics, not in homes. Following which around 40,000 out of 2,65,000 children failed to get vaccinated in the province.

Officials earlier also blamed the Taliban for preventing medics to carry out vaccination drives in their areas. The Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, however, denied the claim and said, the group hasn’t stopped vaccination drives. He added some families in the region are themselves against the polio vaccine, and the group has nothing to do with it.