Two police officers, one polio worker shot dead in separate incidents

The first attack took place in Swabi and the second one in Jamrud.

SWABI: Two police officers and one polio worker were shot dead on Friday in separate incidents, Express News reported.

In the first incident, two police officers providing security to a polio team were killed when unidentified men opened fire at them in Swabi.

The two policemen were riding a motorbike and were intercepted and attacked by at least four gunmen as they left Swabi town for Topi.

A senior local police official Muhammad Sajjad Khan said the pair had been deputed on security duty for an ongoing polio vaccination campaign the area.

An intelligence official also confirmed the incident, which brings the toll to at least 26 deaths since the June 2012 ban.

Bodies of the deceased were taken to a nearby hospital.

In the second incident, unidentified men on a motorcycle opened fire on a polio team working in a village in Jamrud resulting in death of one of the polio workers. The criminals, however, managed to get away.

The attacks come despite a recent fatwa by a prominent religious scholar, who urged parents to immunise their children against polio and other life-threatening diseases and said vaccinations were compliant with Sharia.

Gunmen have frequently attacked polio vaccination workers, accusing them of being Western spies and part of a plot to sterilise Muslims.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio is still endemic, but efforts to stamp out the crippling disease have been hit by repeated attacks on health teams.

A global eradication campaign has reduced polio cases by 99.9 per cent in the last three decades, but it remains endemic in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The disease is highly infectious and can cause irreversible paralysis.

Officials blame the violence and suspicions about the vaccine for a surge in cases. According to the World Health Organisation, Pakistan recorded 72 cases of polio this year compared to 58 in 2012.

New Delhi on December 11 had announced it would require citizens from Pakistan and other polio-affected nations travelling to India to take a mandatory polio vaccination at least six weeks prior to their departure.

Previous attacks

On November 30, a police official was killed and another injured when unidentified men fired at them in Peshawar. The police officials were providing security to the Gulshan Rehman team of polio workers administering the vaccine in the area.

On November 21, 11 teachers were abducted and Khyber official Niaz Ahmed Khan had said the militants who abducted them may have mistaken them for a polio team that had just left the school after giving polio vaccinations.

They were abducted from Khyber Agency and released on November 25. A tribal elder, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said that the militants freed the teachers on condition the government stop sending polio teams to the area.

On October 10, three khasadar officials of Khyber Agency, who were providing security to polio vaccinators, sustained injuries when a roadside bomb targeted their vehicle on Ring Road near Achini in Peshawar.

On October 7, two people were killed and over a dozen – including two polio workers – were injured in a bomb blast outside a dispensary in a village on the edge of Peshawar. They were scheduled to finalise security arrangements for the ongoing polio vaccination campaign in the area.

Two polio volunteers were also killed in Tapaini, Swabi on June 16. The two men were administering drops to children in the area.

On January 29, a police constable escorting polio workers was shot dead in Gullo Dheri, Swabi. On the same day in the neighbouring district of Mardan, a man took an axe to a lady health worker’s brother who was accompanying her for protection during the anti-polio drive; the brother was injured.