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·          Bird’s eye view of Karachi, a sprawling city shrouded by smog- the afternoon sun burning in the sky.

·          Shot of kite (bird) in the sky

Karachi, Pakistan

(dateline)

“Cylinder Eight”

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·          Wide shot of a narrow gully in which something (indiscernible) is going on

Shahnaz Wazir Ali, senior polio eradication official:

If we were running a program of immunization without any security threats, I think we would have done it two years ago.

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·          We get into the gully. The silhouette of a gun-holding policeman with vaccinators in the background. Accompanying text graphic.

Text Graphic: Pakistan, along with Afghanistan are the last two countries to have new cases of polio.

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·          Close up of vaccinators vaccinating child.

·          A wide shot of a vaccinator knocking on a door with her police detail in the background.

·          Shahnaz on camera.

Shahnaz Wazir Ali:

The militancy and target killings that have taken the lives of our polio workers, our supervisors and security personnel actually pose a formidable challenge for us. That is still a possibility that there could still be a target killing.

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·          Veiled vaccinator on vaccine drive standing by the door of a house as its being marked.

·          Gulnaz on Camera

·          Dip to Black

Gulnaz Shirazi, polio vaccination campaign supervisor:

My name is Gulnaz Shirazi.

I started as a polio worker in 2011. I had other members of my family working as polio workers as well. My sister, two nieces, my sister-in-law, and sister-in-law's cousin. They used to work with me.

Where my sister-in-law was working, I heard the sound of shots being fired.

When I looked ahead, I saw my sister-in-law's dead body on a stretcher, lying in front of somebody’s house, covered in blood.

You couldn't tell with my niece's corpse, she didn't look dead but my sister-in-law was covered in blood. Seeing her, I collapsed to the ground.

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·          Shahnaz on camera.

·          Two vaccinators walking in front of Pakistan Rangers, paramilitary who are deployed for their protection.

·          Women vaccinators walk and disappear behind shed

·           Women vaccinators walk through alley

·          Close shot of woman with her baby

·          Close shot of getting her baby vaccinated

·          Close shot of baby’s face

·          Medium shot of mother and child with baby’s finger being marked as vaccinated.

·          Shot of child behind curtain.

·          Wide shot of children with curtain and the vaccinators leaving in the gully.

Shahnaz Wazir Ali: Women polio workers take a huge risk, so would a male polio worker but I think a woman polio worker more so.

She steps out of her home. She goes up and down alleyways.

She climbs multiple stories in apartment buildings. She walks many miles from village to village. So this is taking a woman out of her own home where her life is within a certain proscribed circle and asking her to do something which is pretty non-traditional.

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00:02:29

“January”

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·          Rack focus of the photographs of Gulnaz’s niece Madiha in her hand.

·          Medium shot of Gulnaz sitting holding the photographs of her dead relatives

·          Close up of photographs with text graphic.

·          Dip to black

·    Text graphic:

Names: Fehmida Bibi and Madiha Bibi next to their photographs in Gulnaz’s hand. Madiha Bibi and Fehmida Bibi and were killed by extremists during a vaccine drive on December 18, 2012.

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00:03:19

·          Fade up from black-Spire of mosque at dusk with text graphic for title of documentary

·          Dip to black

Text graphic:

Pakistan’s Polio war

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·          Fade up from black-Person standing over Karachi skyline

·           Mosque exterior

·           Exterior of Dar-ul-Uloom Naeemia madrassa (Islamic school)

·          Students of Dar-ul-Uloom Naeemia

·          Islamic school Dar-ul-Uloom Naeemia

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·          Mufti Muneeb on camera

·          Shot of vaccines

·          Mufti Muneeb on Camera

Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, Islamic cleric:

As I see it, the polio campaign was damaged by the use of Dr. Shakil Afridi for intelligence purposes and vaccines were used as a ruse. Some harms cannot be undone easily. 

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“Cylinder Eight”

Music In

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·          Map

Motion Graphic:

Map of Pakistan:

(Abbottabad appears as a dot with a label. KPK and FATA appear labeled as 'Pashtun areas'.)

In Abbottabad:

Pakistani health workers gain rare access to the compound where Osama Bin Laden is hiding and administer polio drops to the children living there.

Dr. Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani health official, is recruited by the CIA. In 2011, he sets up a fake hepatitis B vaccinationcampaign to help them find bin Laden. 

May 2, 2011: Bin Laden is killed and his body snatched in a raid by a secret U.S. military team.

(FATA label appears as: Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA))

In FATA: 

June 2012: Taliban commander Gul Bahadur issues a fatwa, or religious decree opposing polio vaccines and threatening vaccine workers.

(MAP FADES out of Focus and on this text appears covering the whole screen with the map in background)

Soon after, deadly attacks on polio vaccine workers sharply escalate. 

Between 2012 and 2015, 33 vaccine workers have been killed and 26 injured in attacks.

(Text remains, numbers change and ‘vaccine workers’ changes to ‘security personnel’)

Between 2012 and 2015, 50 security personnel have been killed and 26 injured in attacks.

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·          Shahnaz on Camera

·          Security personnel

·          Niqab clad woman with baby

·          Niqab clad women with babies

·          Boxes being loaded on a cart with text graphic on one of the boxes

·          Boy being vaccinated

·          Girl being vaccinated

·          Shahnaz on Camera

·          Rack focus of women security guards’ faces in the Emergency Operations Center

·          Close shot of hands of the women security guards

·          Wide shot of women security guards

·          EOC Sign

·    Text graphic:

More than 270,000 children suffered disruptions in vaccines.

Shahnaz Wazir Ali: In 2012 we had a huge setback because the polio ban, which was placed by Gul Bahadur in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas had very serious implications. And a large number of families in the thousands, in fact the number counted up to almost 270,000 children that were then deprived of polio drops and immunization because of this very radical and extremist position that had been taken by the Taliban.

Alarm bells started ringing not only in Pakistan but also in the world headquarters- in the WHO headquarters in Geneva and a polio eradication plan had been drafted and approved.

Audio In

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·          Exterior of EOC building

·          Dr. Chachar on Camera

·          Vaccine storage units

·          Text graphic: Vaccine Storage, Emergency Operations Center

Dr. Usman Chachar, Chief, Polio emergency operations center:

Emergency operations center started in January 2015 and the idea was that there should be a coordinated mechanism, coordinated activities related to polio eradication because there were so many organizations, so many partner agencies working for polio eradication but they were working in their own spheres of activities.

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·          Man opening vaccine storage unit

·          Inside of vaccine storage unit

·          UN written on car number plate

·          People walking in the EOC premises with the UN car standing there

Shahnaz Wazir Ali:

Here everybody is now part of one team.  So previously, UNICEF used to sit in its offices, WHO in its offices and so on and so forth but now we are all under one roof. So I think it’s a seamless coordinated team and I think it’s a good model.

It’s just made it all much easier for us to work and as you see, you are right here in the EOC right in the heart of Karachi.

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·          Bird’s eye view of Karachi

·          Vaccinator walking in a chador/burqa (black colored women’s overall).

·          Gulnaz on Camera

·          Vaccinators standing in burqas by a street.

·          Gulnaz on camera

Gulnaz Shirazi:

In the heat of Karachi, working wearing a burqa, is like climbing a mountain. Your breathing becomes labored. Under the veil, the heat feels torrid. Even if you are standing in one spot, like by a street. As you tell people about polio vaccinations, the amount of sweat that pours down…

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·          Fans

·          Close up of cat eating a cut off chicken’s head

·          Medium shot showing people walking by the cat

·          Pakistan rangers standing guard by a road

·          A man with a beard on a bike next to decrepit buildings

·          Man drinking water with cupped hands

·          Wide shot of Lyari river

·          Wide shot of man foraging at the river bank

·          Tight shot of the man eating apple with dirty hands.

·          Dr. Chachar on Camera

·          16 million Pakistanis lack access to safe drinking water

·          Water in Karachi is often contaminated with the polio virus.

·          The poor are especially vulnerable to being infected with the virus.

Dr. Usman Chachar:

It’s a huge city. It has unique dynamics which makes it a challenge for polio eradication activities:

It has issues related to security. Different areas, which are newly coming up, they have issues related to civic amenities. Some of them are not regularized, they don’t come in the planning because they are in the newly developed phase just on the spot, on the spur.

After the operation against militants in the North Waziristan, South Waziristan there has been a lot of influx of internally displaced people.

Audio In

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00:08:26

“Cylinder Eight”

Music In

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00:12:34

00:08:27

·          Face of an old man with a white beard and white Islamic skull cap with text graphic

·          Escalating clashes between the Pakistan army and militants in Pashtun majority areas have displaced 1 million people. An unknown number of Pashtuns continue to move to Karachi.

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·          Karachi Cantonment Railway station sign

·          Wide shot of station

·           Shot of train approaching

·          Fade to Black

·          Shot of person’s feet as he walks on the station platform.

00:08:52

·          Close shot of baby’s tiny toes

Their children have often missed polio vaccine doses making them vulnerable in a city where the virus is prevalent. 

00:08:58

·          Person walking away with baby in arms

Many Pashtuns see vaccines as western conspiracy to sterilize them and refuse to vaccinate their children. 

Hazrat Bilal is one such child who suffers from polio.

00:09:08

·          Hazrat Bilal in the arms of his father.

Name: Hazrat Bilal

Age: 3

Ethnicity: Pashtun

Status: Unvaccinated, Polio victim

00:09:13

·          Bilal’s feet

Right leg paralyzed by polio

00:09:18

·          Khayal Muhammad on Camera

Khayal Muhammad, Pashtun migrant and father of polio victim:

Reporter: When the vaccinators came to your house then why didn’t you vaccinate him?

Khayal Mohammad: I did feed him the drops.

Reporter: Even then he got polio?

Khayal Mohammad: Even then he got polio.

Reporter:But you can’t get polio if you vaccinatedhim properly….

Khayal Mohammad: That must be Allah’s will.

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·          Text on black screen

·          WHO report for Bilal

Cross dissolve

Text graphic: Khayal Mohammad states he vaccinated his child.

The World Health Organization report states that the family refuses the vaccine.

Motion graphic: WHO case report for Bilal

(Bilal’s name becomes big. Then report flips through the page to stop at this sentence which is highlighted.)

This family is silent refusal (4 families in the house and only one family sis silent refusal (case family)). Polio team is accessing the area but refusal families are in the area and reason are western conspiracy and infertility.

(‘Reason are western conspiracy and infertility’ remain everything else cancels out.)

00:10:01

Black screen with text

Some estimates say more than half of polio cases in Karachi are refusals.

Experts say that in each vaccination drive thousands of people refuse the vaccine in Pakistan.

Music

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·          Shahnaz on Camera

·          Close shot of eyes of policeman

·          Close shot of “Police” tag of security guard

·          Policeman standing with gun

Shahnaz Wazir Ali: In Karachi for example, when we move the campaign into the national immunization days, four days of that campaign, we require at least four and a half thousand policeman. At least. That is the minimum requirement. And this is sometimes not possible for the city to provide five thousand or four and a half thousand policemen. Because so many other events take place, as you know law and order events don’t give you a warning. They just happen and so the police is otherwise engaged. And so this has been a challenge particularly in Sindh, in Karachi.

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·          Gulnaz on Camera

Gulnaz Shirazi:

My mother would be worried (about my safety), until I came home (from a vaccination drive). When I would enter my house she would say, “Do you know I have prayed for your safety all day?” I would say to her, I need all your prayers.

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·          Kids playing and making pigeons fly

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·          Flag of Pakistan

·          Wide shot of a street in the Sachal Goth neighbourhood with Pakistani Rangers paramilitary personnel visible.

·          Repeated shot of vaccinators walking in front of Pakistani Rangers

·          Medium shot of vaccinators walking with Pakistan Ranger standing guard

·          Close up of a vaccination refrigeration kit slung over the shoulder of a polio worker with “end polio now” written on it”

·          Shot of parting curtain at the door of a house

·           Shot of vaccinator parting curtain and entering the house

·          Female Vaccinator approaching house with child and mother at the door

·          Faces of to be vaccinated children looking at the Male vaccinator readying vaccines.

·          Female vaccinator talking to the mother and child

·          Male vaccinator talking to children and vaccinating them

·          Wide shot of male vaccinator marking kids as vaccinated

·          Little girl crying as female vaccinator marks her as vaccinated

Text graphic:

Nov. 11, 2015

Sachal Goth, Pashtun Area

Karachi

Text graphic:

The vaccine drive delayed because of lack of security gets underway.

Natural Sound:

Vaccinator: You have only one child?

Mother: Yes

Vaccinator: Say ‘Aaa’!

Vaccinator: Let me mark you (as vaccinated)

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·          Child crying after being vaccinated

·          Ali on camera

·          Ali on motorcycle wide shot

·          Ali on motorcycle medium shot

·          Sea waves on Clifton Beach

·          Child close-up in parents’ arms on beach

·          Medium shot of the same child

·          Wide shot of the same child

·          Ali on camera

·          Silhouette of child in woman’s arms on the beach

·          Gulnaz sitting in chair and her headscarf billowing in the wind

Ali Hassan, polio victim:

When I was one and a half or two year most probably old, I had a severe attack of Polio.

Most of my age mates, at that time they were kids. Most of them are not vaccinated.

Polio paralyzed me. Polio attacked me in both of my legs…are paralyzed. It also affects on my bones, especially my back bones, spinal. It was like this after the attack.

My childhood was lot much good like other children.

Now parents have this opportunity that polio teams are coming on their doors to vaccinate their children.

If you are getting this facility on your door please don’t miss this opportunity. Please cooperate with those guys, please cooperate with those (polio) team members who are coming to your door and giving you the opportunity to save your children’s future.

Audio In

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Audio out

00:13:47

“January”

Music In

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00:16:40

00:14:11

·          Gulnaz on Camera

Gulnaz Shirazi: On the days that I feel lonely doing (vaccination) work, I feel like my sister-in-law and my niece are standing beside me, giving me courage saying, “You shouldn’t be disheartened. Allah is with you. Remember this: our sacrifice should not go to waste.”

Audio in

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Audio Out

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·          Gulnaz fades out of focus with text on screen

·          Fade to black

·          Timelapse on beach

·          Fade to black

·          Text on black screen

·          Fade up from black- burqa clad women holding infants in arms

·          Fade to black

·          Fade up from black text graphic

·          Credits

Text graphic:

Gulnaz Shirazi continues to work for eradicating polio.

Text graphic: The vaccine initiative yielded great success in the first nine months of 2015. Only 29 cases of polio were diagnosed in Pakistan in that time compared to 306 cases in year 2014.

During the last 3 months of 2015, however, 22 new cases were diagnosed.

Text graphic:    On the morning of January 13, 2016, a suicide bomb attack killed at least 16 people, including 13 police officials outside a polio center in Quetta.

Vaccinators resumed work the same afternoon.

Pakistan Taliban and Jundullah, another militant group each claimed responsibility for the attack and Jundullah threatened more attacks on polio teams in the future.

As of May, 11 new cases of polio have been diagnosed in Pakistan in 2016.

Credits:

Reported and Directed by

Aditya Prakash

Director of Graphics

Jin Wu

Additional Reporting by

Hamid-ur Rehman,

Tehmina Qureshi,

Ezra Kaplan

Project Editor

Josh Meyer

Cinematography, Sound and Video Editing

Aditya Prakash

Special Thanks

Rizvi Syed

Framji Minwalla

Christie Lauder

Arman Sabir

Wasif Shakil

Music

“January” by Kai Engel

“Cylinder Eight” by Chris Zabriskie

Film made for

Medill National Security Reporting Project