Constable, worker killed in separate incidents on first day of anti-polio campaign in Pakistan

Peshawar: A polio worker and a police constable were shot dead in separate incidents in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday as the country began a week-long polio eradication campaign amid tight security.

Unidentified assailants opened fire and killed a polio worker in Bannu district on the very first day of the anti-polio drive that commenced across Pakistan.

The incident occurred in Kala Khel Masti Khan and the attackers managed to escape. Police stated that the deceased polio worker was on his way to duty when he was attacked.

In a separate incident in Karak district, Constable Ishtiaq Ahmed, escorting a team of polio workers, was killed when unidentified motorcyclists opened fire. The assailants managed to escape.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only countries where the paralysing virus is still rampant.

During the campaign, more than 44.7 million children under the age of five will be vaccinated. The campaign has started across 143 districts of the country to prevent the resurgence of the polio virus.

A target has been set to vaccinate 23.3 million children in Punjab's 36 districts, 7.2 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's 36 districts, 10.6 million in Sindh's 30 districts and 2.6 million in Balochistan's 36 districts.

Additionally, more than 800,000 children will be vaccinated in Islamabad, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and five districts of Gilgit-Baltistan.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province alone, 54,000 security personnel, including police and Frontier Corps troops, have been deployed to provide protection to the polio vaccinators in the restive parts of the province.

Kurram district has been excluded from the anti-polio drive due to the security situation in the sectarian rife district bordering Afghanistan.

News agency AP reported that authorities deployed thousands of police officers to protect the health workers following intelligence reports that insurgents could target them.

Citing health officials and authorities, AP said more than 200 polio workers and police assigned for their protection have been killed since the 1990s.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday inaugurated the last campaign of the year by administering polio drops to children under the age of five on the occasion while reaffirming their determination to eliminate the disease from Pakistan.

In his address, the premier expressed concern over the rise in polio cases. However, he assured the nation that collaborative efforts by federal and provincial governments would overcome the challenge.

Pakistan’s efforts to eradicate polio received a jolt as the national tally of infections in 2024 reached 63, a stark contrast to just six cases reported in 2023.

Pakistan had reduced polio to just one case in 2021, giving hope that the country would soon get polio-free status, but the menace returned in 2022 with 20 new cases. Earlier, the infection peaked in 2019 when 147 new cases were reported.

There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.

Afghanistan reported at least 23 confirmed cases in 2024, according to data from the WHO. PTI AYZ GSP GSP