Female polio worker injured in Quetta gun attack

Polio workers particularly female workers in Balochistan remain under constant threat of armed terrorist groups

QUETTA: Unknown armed men opened fire on a female polio worker while she was participating in a polio vaccination campaign in Quetta’s Bhosa Mandi on Wednesday morning.

According to police, Ghazala was busy administering polio drops among children when armed men riding a motorbike targeted her and escaped from the scene after opening fire on the victim.

As a result of the latest attack, Ghazala sustained bullet injuries while other polio workers survived the attack, the police added.

Rescue workers and a heavy contingent of security forces rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to Civil Hospital’s trauma center for medical treatment.



Polio workers, particularly female workers, remain under constant threat of armed terrorist groups during polio vaccination campaigns in Balochistan.

In January 2018, a mother and daughter vaccinating polio drops were killed during a brazen attack on female polio workers in Quetta’s Hazara Ganji area.

So far no group has claimed responsibility of the attack but ISIS (Daesh) and TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) have previously carried out attacks against polio workers in Balochistan.

The police further added that the polio worker was vaccinating children without security in Quetta’s most sensitive area.

“We have registered the FIR of the incident, while the hunt for the attackers is underway,” police said.