Terror strikes polio drive: 5 police officers killed in Pakistan explosion

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PAKISTAN, Jan 8: In a tragic incident, a targeted explosive device struck a police vehicle conducting a polio vaccination drive in the northwestern region of Pakistan, resulting in the death of at least five police officers and injuries to nearly two dozen others. The attack unfolded early Monday morning in Bajaur, a tribal district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, adjacent to Afghanistan, coinciding with the launch of Pakistan’s latest round of polio vaccination efforts.

Officials confirmed that five individuals among the wounded are in critical condition and have been transported to the provincial capital, Peshawar, situated approximately 133 kilometers (82 miles) south of Bajaur. Bilal Faizi, the spokesperson for the provincial rescue services, explained that the blast occurred as the police team embarked on the polio vaccination drive. Most of the injured were initially treated at a local hospital in Bajaur, while critical patients were swiftly moved to Peshawar.

As of now, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, in recent years, the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) has been implicated in numerous incidents targeting polio vaccination workers and security personnel across the country.

Resistance to the polio immunization campaign has escalated in Pakistan, fueled partly by the CIA’s controversial use of a fake vaccination drive to locate Osama bin Laden in 2011. Additionally, religious leaders in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region have contributed to misinformation, alleging that the vaccine contains prohibited substances like pork and alcohol in violation of Islamic principles.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries yet to be declared free of the wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV-1) disease. Achieving the “polio-free” status requires a country to demonstrate an absence of WPV-1 transmission for a minimum of three consecutive years, as stipulated by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Despite ongoing challenges, health authorities continue their efforts to eradicate polio and combat resistance to vaccination drives in the region.

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