At least two Police officers have been killed this Tuesday in an attack carried out by unidentified individuals against the escort of a polio vaccination team in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the north of the country and close to the border with Afghanistan.
The "number two" of the Mohmand Police, Liaquat Ali, has detailed in statements to the Pakistani newspaper "Dawn" that the attack was carried out near a checkpoint in Hasim Kor, in Pindiali, before identifying the deceased as Zahur Jan and Arbai Jan. For now there is no claim of responsibility for the attack.
The event took place just one day after the kidnapping of four workers from anti-polio teams in Tank, also in this province, an episode firmly condemned by the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Faisal Karim Kundi, who has called for "immediate and effective measures" to achieve their release.
In this regard, Kundi has emphasized that these health professionals "carry out a national duty to protect children and promote a healthy Pakistan", while denouncing that the aggressions against these people are "contrary to humanity and to the national interests" of the central Asian country.
These events are occurring amid the launch of a new immunization campaign against polio begun on Sunday and which aims to vaccinate around 24 million minors in 97 districts considered high risk for the disease. Pakistan has reported eight cases of poliomyelitis so far this year, six of them located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Polio, a very contagious disease that affects especially the child population, is transmitted mainly by the fecal-oral route, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The virus remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, after Nigeria declared its eradication in 2020.