Srinagar: 12 detained for spreading rumours of death due to polio

Srinagar: A day after rumours spread in the Valley that polio vaccination caused death of children, which resulted in worried parents rushing their kids to hospitals, police detained over a dozen persons for allegedly scaremongering about the immunisation programme.

"We have detained more than a dozen persons who had shared the false news about deaths of children due to polio vaccination," a police official said.

However, no arrests have been made so far as police was trying to trace the person who originated the rumours, he said.

Two FIRs have been registered in connection with the rumours -- one each in south Kashmir's Pampore town and Baramulla town in north Kashmir, the official said.

Thousands of worried parents rushed their kids to various hospitals across the Valley as rumors spread on social networking sites and messaging apps that several children had died after being administered polio vaccine drops.

The rumours caused panic, leading to massive traffic jams in Srinagar city and all major towns of the Valley yesterday.

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