Two police guarding polio teams killed in Mohmand attack, third wounded
A health worker vaccinating a child against polio in Pakistan, shown in a file photograph. (NOT today's attack — a file photograph of vaccination.)
Mohmand: Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on police officers travelling to guard polio vaccination teams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mohmand district on Tuesday, killing two constables and wounding a third. District Police Officer Raza Muhammad Khan said the attack took place in the Tamanzai area, within the jurisdiction of Pandiali police station, as the officers were on their way to protect vaccination teams in a nearby village.
The officers who died
Police identified the martyred personnel as constables Zahoor and Arabi, while the wounded officer, Sabir, was shifted to hospital. One attacker was also wounded in the exchange of fire, police said, and a search operation was launched across the area after the shooting. No group had claimed responsibility for the attack by Tuesday evening.
Four team members abducted in Tank
The attack came a day after unidentified armed men abducted four members of a vaccination team in Tank district. Officials say efforts are under way to secure their release, while two team members kidnapped in Lower South Waziristan were later freed. President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi both condemned the Mohmand attack; Naqvi called it intolerable, said the slain officers had worked for a healthier future for the country, and warned that those responsible would be shown no leniency.
Campaign runs until November 8
The incidents fall on the second day of a sub-national polio campaign that began on November 2 and runs until November 8 across 97 selected districts. According to the National Emergency Operations Centre, more than 6.683 million children were vaccinated on the first day, with an overall target of reaching nearly 24 million children under five. The World Health Organization counts Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan as the only countries where wild poliovirus remains endemic — which is why the safety of vaccination teams matters as much as the vaccination itself, every time a campaign goes out.
