Pakistan: Another police personnel shot dead while protecting polio team

Islamabad, Oct 15 (IANS) Another police constable, who was deployed for the security of polio vaccination team, was shot dead after unidentified assailants opened fire in the Kaahi area of Nizampur in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday, marking the second such incident in last three days, local media reported.

Police identified the constable as Maqsood (35), a resident of Kheshgi. Police spokesperson said that the incident happened when female health workers were administering polio drops to children in a house, leading Pakistani daily Express Tribune reported. The attackers fled from the spot after the incident and the authorities have launched a search operation to arrest them.

This marks the second such incident in three days since the launch of polio eradication campaign. Earlier on Tuesday, a Levies constable deployed for the protection of polio vaccination team was shot dead after unidentified assailants opened fire on him in the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa according to the police authorities.

According to Swat’s District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Umar Khan, Levies constable who was killed was doing his duty along with a polio team comprising two female health workers, Pakistan's leading daily Dawn reported.

Khan said, "The workers were administering vaccines inside a house while the constable was standing guard outside when he was attacked." He stated that the attackers fled from the spot following the incident. Police and law enforcement officials have arrived at the site of the incident and begun investigations.

Polio workers have been frequently targetted in attacks, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. In May, a police personnel deployed for the protection of vaccination team was killed in a gun attack by unidentified assailants in Balochistan’s Noshki district, while another was killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bajaur district in February. As many as 20 people were killed and 53 others were injured during anti-polio campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where Wild Poliovirus remains endemic. Polio eradication efforts in Pakistan have slowed down due to challenges like security issues, vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.

Earlier in September, two new poliovirus cases were detected in Pakistan’s Sindh province, raising the nationwide tally in 2025 to 29, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH). According to NIH statement, "with these two cases, both girls, the total number of polio cases in Pakistan in 2025 has reached 29", including 18 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan.

--IANS

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