A team led by a woman tehsildar (revenue official) that visited Malikhedi village of Ujjain district on Monday to motivate villagers for Covid vaccination was attacked by villagers belonging to the Pardi community.
The medical team had visited the village earlier also and locals were not ready to take the vaccine shots. When the team reached the village again on Monday morning and tried to persuade the locals to get vaccinated, some villagers allegedly attacked the husband of a woman panchayat office-bearer ( Shakil Mohammad Qureshi) , who was part the medical team.
A widely circulated video of the incident on social media shows the medical team members fleeing after the attack on them.
"The team comprising woman tehsildar, ANM, Asha workers and the local Patwari had come to the village to clear doubts pertaining vaccination among villagers and motivate them for vaccination. While the tehsildar and other team members were talking to villagers, a crowd of over 50 men and youths armed with rods and swords came to the spot and started misbehaving with the team," according to a team member.
ऐसे कैसे लगेगा टीका? उज्जैन में पारदी मोहल्ले में टीका लगाने गई स्वास्थ्य विभाग की टीम पर हमला, एक स्वास्थ्यकर्मी का सिर फूटा ... मध्यप्रदेश के कई ग्रामीण इलाकों से आ रही है ऐसी खबरें @ndtv@ndtvindia#VaccinationDrive#vaccinated@manishndtv@GargiRawatpic.twitter.com/jvf7h38FmD
— Anurag Dwary (@Anurag_Dwary) May 24, 2021"Before we could understand anything, the villagers started attacking us. While the tehsildar and other team members managed to escape unhurt, I sustained head injury in the attack," the injured man Shakil Mohammad Qureshi said.
Addtional SP Akash Bhuria said: "A case has been registered against four men for the attack and attempts are underway to arrest them."
India has so far cleared two vaccines: Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Covishield, which is made by the Serum Institute and was developed by AstraZeneca-Oxford University.
A third - Russia's Sputnik V - has been approved for emergency use but has yet to be rolled out.
