PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen killed a Pakistani policeman on Tuesday while he was providing security of polio workers in Kohat district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a senior official confirmed while talking to Arab News.
The province’s chief secretary Dr. Shahzad Khan Bangash formally kicked off the second phase of the first anti-polio drive of the year only a day before, saying the authorities were planning to inoculate over 3.4 million children against the crippling disease.
“A policeman was waiting outside a private residence where female polio workers were administering polio drops to children when gunmen opened fire on him,” Tahir Ayub, deputy inspector general (DIG) police in the Kohat region, said.
“We have initiated an investigation into the attack and will bring the perpetrators to justice,” he added.
According to a statement issued on Monday by the Emergency Operations Center, the provincial chief secretary maintained that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had made huge progress in its battle against polio while inaugurating the campaign.
He added that no wild polio virus case had been reported in the province for more than 18 months despite multiple challenges in running such campaigns.
Local elders along with law enforcement officials attend the funeral prayer of a police constable who was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen while he was guarding polio workers in Kohat, Pakistan, on January 25, 2022. (Photo courtesy: KP Police)
However, Bangash designated Peshawar and districts like Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan as high-risk places in the province that required more attention.
“I appeal to the parents and caregivers to support the government’s efforts in stopping the WPV [wild polio virus] transmission by vaccinating their children during every anti-polio campaign,” he added.
The provincial administration’s spokesman, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, told Arab News the attack on the policeman would not weaken the nation’s resolve to sternly deal with such criminal elements.
“We have already directed law enforcement officials and other relevant departments to devise a strategy to provide foolproof security to polio workers,” he added.
Earlier this month, Emergency Operations Center coordinator Abdul Basit said the authorities had successfully completed the first round of the anti-polio campaign and the second round would begin in 19 districts from January 24.
He said 14,887 teams had been constituted for the second phase of the campaign, adding that 13,287 of them were mobile while 953 were fixed.
Basit said the authorities had also deployed enough officials to monitor the campaign’s quality and rectify any problems at the grassroots level.
