Police official deployed with polio team fatally shot in Pakistan’s northwest amid rising militant violence

Policemen stand guard as a health worker (C) administers polio vaccine drops to a child during a polio vaccination door-to-door campaign in a slum area in Islamabad on January 13, 2021. (AFP/File)

• Over 200 police personnel have been killed in targeted attacks by unidentified individuals in KP during two years
• While no group has immediately claimed responsibility for the latest killing, suspicion is likely to fall on the TTP

PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen on a motorbike fatally shot a police official heading to his duty to provide protection to a polio team in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Tuesday, bringing the total number of police personnel killed in such targeted attacks in the province to 56 this year.
According to the police, the incident occurred in Peshawar, where another constable was gunned down last Wednesday.
The latest killings come at a time of renewed militant violence in Pakistan’s two western provinces since the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off its fragile truce with the government in November 2022.
“Shah Nawaz, the slain police officer who was deputed to guard a polio team, came under attack early morning in the jurisdiction of Badhaber Police Station,” confirmed Safeer Khan, a police spokesperson. “The case is under investigation for us to determine if it was the work of militants because the slain policeman also had some enmities.”
While no group has immediately claimed responsibility for the latest killing, suspicion is likely to fall on the TTP, which has claimed dozens of recent attacks in the country’s militancy-prone northwest.
KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur condemned the attack, directing the police to apprehend the perpetrators behind the killing, according to a statement released by his office.
“These kinds of dastardly acts cannot demoralize the police force,” Gandapur said. “Financial assistance should be extended to the bereaved family of the martyred police officer.”
The killing came amid a mounting wave of attacks on KP police in recent days.
Last week, a senior police officer told Arab News that over 200 of his colleagues had been killed in targeted attacks and ambushes by unidentified individuals in the last two years.
Going by the numbers shared by him, the latest killing has brought the total number of police officers martyred in targeted killings to 56.
Unidentified gunmen also shot dead a policeman in the restive North Waziristan tribal district in May, while six people, including five officials of the customs department, were killed and another wounded when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in the southern Dera Ismail Khan district of the restive province.
Pakistan has frequently blamed such violence on militants hiding in Afghanistan.
However, Kabul denies the militant presence, blaming Islamabad for not being able to handle its own security challenges.