Within 8 days: EPI worker’s killer held, say Swabi police

10 polio workers have been gunned down in Swabi district since 2012

PESHAWER: The Swabi police on Saturday claimed to have arrested the killer of Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) worker Sohail Ahmad, also recovering the weapon used in the crime.

Sohail was killed on July 1 while he was returning home from the Basic Health Unit in Naranji village. He belonged to Kalu Khan Village in district Swabi.

“The murderer of EPI technician Sohail has been arrested,” District Police Officer Muhammad Sohaib Ashraf told The Express Tribune. He said the murderer, Nasir, had confessed to killing the EPI technician – by mistake.



According to the Swabi police, Nasir said in his confessional statement that he had planned to kill Roz Amin, another EPI technician and a colleague of Sohail, who had left the health facility at the same time as Sohail did.

The accused suspected Amin of having an illicit relationship with his wife and hatched a conspiracy to kill him, said the statement, adding that since both Sohail and Amin had left the health facility at almost the same time, the accused got confused and killed Sohail, instead of Amin.



Since 2012, as many as 10 polio workers, including the district coordinator for the polio eradication programme Dr Yaqoob, have been gunned down in the district. It was, however, the first time that an EPI technician was targeted.

The number of deaths during anti-polio campaigns across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and Fata during the same period is estimated to be more than 40, including police and Frontier Corps personnel.

This is despite the strict security measures adopted to protect the lives of polio workers during immunisation campaigns.