Peshawar, Nov 3: Two police personnel guarding an anti-polio vaccination team were killed, while another sustained injuries in an attack by unidentified gunmen in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, an official said.
According to District Police Officer (DPO) Raza Khan, a police team was travelling from its post towards Yakh Dand village to provide security to vaccinators when armed assailants ambushed it in Pindiali tehsil in Mohmand district in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Two police personnel were killed on the spot, while another policeman sustained injuries, DPO Khan said.
No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliated factions have previously targeted polio vaccination teams in the province.
The incidents took place on day one of a four-day synchronised anti-polio drive targeting 4.8 million children under five across 27 provincial districts.
On November 1, the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication (NEOC) confirmed that a new polio case from Khyber district, taking this year’s national tally of the crippling disease to eight.
The injured policeman and the bodies of the deceased were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital in Ghalanai town of Mohmand district.
The police have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to trace the attackers.
In a separate incident, in Tank district of the province, four polio vaccination workers were abducted by unidentified armed men on Tuesday.
DPO Abdul Samad Khan said the gunmen held the workers at gunpoint before taking them to an unknown location.
Police and security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in adjoining areas to recover them.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi condemned both incidents and expressed grief over the deaths of the police personnel.
He called for coordinated efforts to ensure the safe recovery of the abducted health workers, saying frontline vaccinators were performing a vital national duty to protect children’s health and their security must be ensured.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, at least 47 attacks targeting polio workers have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2020, resulting in nine deaths, seven injuries and more than 15 abductions.
According to the provincial Emergency Operations Centre, 20,772 vaccination teams were deployed for the province-wide campaign, supported by approximately 30,000 security personnel.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic, according to the World Health Organisation. (PTI)
