At least 18 people have been detained in northwestern Pakistan for refusing to allow their children to receive polio vaccinations.
Police told Radio Mashaal on February 26 that they were detained in the Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
District police chief Rab Nawaz Khan said 100 cases were originally filed against parents who refused to let their children be vaccinated.
Khan said the issue was settled with most parents after they agreed to let their children receive anti-polio drops.
The 18 parents who continued to refuse were detained.
More than 300 polio cases were reported last year in Pakistan, most of them in the northwest.
Militants frequently target medical workers involved in dispensing polio vaccinations, contributing to an increase in polio cases in Pakistan and making the country one of only three in the world where the disease remains endemic.
