Polio worker injured in firing in N Waziristan

Security forces kill attacker trying to cut fence on Pak-Afghan border

MIRANSHAH:

The attacks on polio workers continue unabated as another vaccinator was severely injured after unidentified armed men opened fire on him in Mir Ali area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s North Waziristan district.

According to details, Sher Shah was attacked in the TT Madakhel area. He was shifted to tehsil Mir Ali hospital and later referred to Peshawar, a police report said.

In another incident, an attacker was killed in clash with the security forces. The assailant was trying to cut the fence near the Pakistani posts Kanjira and Wargar Sar on the Pak-Afghan border.

A soldier named Saqib was also injured in the exchange of fire who was shifted to Miranshah hosptial.
Later, the security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.

On Tuesday, unidentified assailants martyred two police officers assigned to polio vaccination teams and a polio worker in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan.

According to officials, the gunmen opened fire on the policemen who were guarding a team of polio workers in the district during the vaccination drive.

As a result of the attack, two policemen were martyred and a child also sustained injuries during the attack after he was shot in the leg. A heavy contingent of law enforcement reached the spot after the incident and the bodies of the deceased were shifted to a hospital.

However, the assailants managed to escape from the area. The victims were taking part in a United Nations-funded campaign that kicked off on Monday in high-risk areas of the country, targeting 12.6 million children under the age of five.

Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the world with circulating wild poliovirus, together with Afghanistan. Polio is a highly infectious virus and until this last remaining epidemiological bloc wipes out polio, children all over the world remain at risk of life-long paralysis or fatality by the poliovirus.

The emergency committee under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) on the international spread of poliovirus also recently expressed concern over the outbreak of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) in the North Waziristan district.