(MENAFN- Arab Times) PESHAWAR Pakistan March 3 (Agencies): Pakistani officials say hundreds of parents have been arrested in recent days because they refused to allow vaccinators to give their children the polio vaccine. Feroz Shah a spokesman for the Peshawar district administration says 471 people have been arrested.

A senior police officer in Peshawar Shakirullah Khan says he does not have an exact figure on the number arrested but that it is so far in the 'hundreds.' Khan said the arrests were made under a law against endangering public safety. Authorities have made scattered arrests in the past for polio refusals but such widespread arrests are rare.

Pakistan is one of three countries where polio is endemic and the country last year accounted for the vast majority of reported cases. Pakistani authorities have suspended two health officials after $3.7 million worth of vaccines donated by UNICEF to protect children from deadly diseases were wasted officials said Tuesday.

The pentavalent vaccines which protect against five diseases with a single shot spoiled because they were not stored at the proper temperature officials said. 'An inquiry commission was formed to investigate the case and has suspended two officials for negligence' Dr Saqlain Ahmad Gilani the national manager at the Expanded Programme on Immunization told AFP. 'The vaccines were stored on a higher temperature than required.' The vaccines worth $3.7 million were donated by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) he said. State minister of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar confirmed the incident and said it would lead to an improvement in vaccine monitoring. Tarar said the vaccines were ruined because of 'departmental conflicts