Pakistan : Khyber Pakhtunkhwa On Tuesday, militants shot and killed two police officers protecting a polio vaccination team in the Orakzai district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Two attackers were also killed, according to police.
Vaccination teams are frequently targeted by militants waging a campaign against security forces, and Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in which polio is still widespread.
Pakistan began a week-long vaccination campaign on Monday with the goal of vaccinating over 45 million children under the age of five.
A senior Orakzai police officer, Malik Sikandar, told AFP: Police officers protecting a polio vaccination team were attacked by two militants.
According to what he told the AFP, “one policeman died at the scene while the second succumbed to injuries” on his way to the hospital. He also said that officers chased down and killed the two attackers as well as a local accomplice.
Naveedullah Khan, a second police official, confirmed the death and informed AFP that the team’s two vaccination workers “were inside the home during the attack and remained safe.”
Since KP has long been a hotbed of militant activity, no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
President Zardari condemns the polio attack in Orakzai President Asif Ali Zardari expressed regret for the police officers’ deaths in the attack on the polio team.
His statement said, referring to the police response, ” The brave police officers defeated the terrorists and drove three of them to hell.
He reaffirmed the government’s determination to keep working toward the country’s complete polio elimination.
In a statement, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi stated: The terrorists’ assault on the polio team is an assault on Pakistan’s safe future.
This year, Pakistani polio teams have seen an increase in cases, with 41 cases recorded so far in 2024 compared to six in 2023.
In the tense and mountainous regions that border Afghanistan, polio vaccination teams consisting of health care providers and police officers have frequently been the target of attacks.
After a series of militant attacks on them, dozens of police officers in the Bannu district went on strike last month. Police officers accompany medical teams on door-to-door campaigns.
Before the strike, unidentified assailants attacked a polio vaccination team in the Salarzai tehsil of the Bajaur district, killing a police officer and a polio worker.
Over the course of time, numerous polio vaccination workers and their escorts have been killed. According to a Dawn report released last month, attacks against healthcare workers and polio program officials have resulted in 126 deaths and 201 injuries since 2012.
Dr. Abdul Rehman, a polio program official, was killed in Bajaur earlier this year in one of the most well-publicized attacks.
Because of false information, conspiracy theories, and some outspoken clerics who claim that the jabs are anti-Islamic, some areas along Pakistan’s border remain resistant to vaccination.
