PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A police officer escorting a polio vaccination team was shot dead by unidentified attackers in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat Valley on Tuesday, officials said, in the latest assault on the country’s decades-long campaign to eradicate the crippling disease.
Naseer Khan, a senior police official, told We News English that Abdul Kabir, a policeman assigned to protect health workers in Aricot village of Sway valley, came under fire from unidentified gunmen.
“A search operation to hunt the attackers is ongoing,” Khan said, adding that the assailants fled the scene.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack, calling it “intolerable” and an assault on those performing a “vital public service.” He expressed sorrow over Kabir’s death and reaffirmed the government’s “unwavering commitment” to eliminate polio from Pakistan.
“Despite such resistance from terrorists, the anti-polio campaign continues with full determination and will persist until polio is completely eradicated,” Sharif said in a statement.
Militants Exploit Misinformation
Pakistan on Monday launched a week-long nationwide anti-polio campaign aimed at vaccinating more than 45 million children under the age of five, the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) said.
The initiative comes amid a resurgence of the Polio virus, with health officials confirming 29 new cases so far this year, according to the country’s polio eradication programme.
The vaccination drive has begun in 159 districts from October 13 to 19, while in the southern regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it will run from October 20 to 23. Over 400,000 trained health workers will go door to door to administer oral polio drops to children.
Polio vaccination teams and their security escorts are frequently targeted in Pakistan, particularly in areas with militant activity. The attacks are often fueled by misinformation and conspiracy theories portraying vaccination drives as Western plots or espionage operations.
Terrorist groups such as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch separatist factions have repeatedly threatened or attacked health workers in regions where the poliovirus remains active.
These assaults, coupled with vaccine boycotts, have caused serious disruptions in immunization campaigns.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic.
