Two policemen assigned to protect a polio vaccination team were martyred and a third was injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them in Mohmand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday, the second day of Pakistan’s nationwide polio campaign. The attack came a day after four polio workers were abducted at gunpoint in Tank district, in a grim start to the week-long immunisation drive aimed at reaching nearly 24 million children.
What happened in Mohmand
According to the Associated Press, suspected militants riding a motorcycle shot and killed the two officers as they travelled to join polio teams for security duty during the door-to-door vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan. The drive-by shooting took place in Mohmand, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that borders Afghanistan, and also wounded a third officer.
District Police Officer Raza Muhammad Khan confirmed that the attack happened in the Tamanzai area of Pindiali tehsil, while Deputy Superintendent of Police Liaquat Ali said the officers were targeted near the Hashim Kor police checkpost, according to Dawn. The two martyred personnel were identified as Constables Zahoor and Arabi Khan, with a third officer, Constable Sabirullah, injured in the firing. Police said no group had claimed responsibility and the attackers had not been named.
The shooting underlines the dangers facing the security personnel who escort vaccination teams through some of the province’s most sensitive areas. Tuesday was only the second day of the national campaign, which runs from 2 to 8 November across 97 districts with the aim of reaching nearly 24 million children under the age of five, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre.
Four polio workers abducted in Tank
A day earlier, on Monday, armed men abducted four polio vaccination workers in Tank district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Police accounts carried by The Express Tribune and Pakistan Today said the team was taken from Jious village in Sheikh Attar Union Council, where the armed men opened fire before seizing the workers and taking them to an undisclosed location.
One report named the abducted workers as UCMO Qadeer, area in-charge Usman, Sameer and Umair. Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Faisal Karim Kundi strongly condemned the abduction, describing it as deeply regrettable, and called for immediate and effective measures to secure the safe recovery of the workers. Police have launched an investigation, and the workers’ whereabouts remained unknown at the time the reports were filed.
In a separate incident on the same day, two members of a polio vaccination team were abducted in the Azam Warsak area of Lower South Waziristan but were subsequently released, according to local sources. Those sources alleged the involvement of members of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, though the allegation could not be independently confirmed.
A campaign under attack
The violence has raised fresh concerns about the safety of the frontline health workers and their police escorts in a province where polio teams face recurring threats. Militant groups have long opposed anti-polio drives, and attacks on vaccinators and their guards have disrupted campaigns in the past.
The timing is particularly difficult for the eradication effort. Pakistan’s National Emergency Operations Centre has confirmed eight wild poliovirus cases in the country this year, including the latest — a 13-month-old girl in Khyber district — reported on 1 November. Six of the eight cases this year are in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, making the province the frontline of the fight against the disease.
Officials had not said whether vaccination activities were suspended in Mohmand, Tank or Lower South Waziristan following the attacks, and it was not clear whether the four kidnapped workers in Tank had been recovered.
Pakistan’s polio fight continues
Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic, alongside Afghanistan. The current nationwide polio campaign, launched on 2 November, is part of the country’s ongoing push to interrupt transmission and protect children from the crippling disease.
Health authorities have repeatedly appealed to communities to cooperate with vaccination teams and to the government to provide foolproof security for workers in high-risk districts. The attacks in Mohmand and Tank are a stark reminder of what is at stake — not just the safety of the workers, but the health of millions of children the campaign is meant to protect.
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