Blast targeting Pak officials protecting polio vaccination teams kills 5 cops

Islamabad: At least five cops were killed and 22 people injured after a bomb went off near a police van carrying personnel to provide security to polio vaccination teams in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, officials said.

The incident occurred in Bajaur district's Mamund tehsil.

According to the Bajaur police spokesperson, the 22 injured local civilans as well.

“Twelve out of the 22 wounded are being treated at the hospital, while 10 others seriously injured had been referred to a Peshawar medical facility”, said Wazir Khan Safi, the medical superintendent at Khar District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ).

Police spokesperson Israr Ahmed confirmed that the personnel were on their way to provide security to polio teams carrying out vaccination campaign in the area.

“Polio campaign in the area had now been suspended. Seriously injured people would be taken to Peshawar via helicopter. The area has been cordoned off”, confirmed Saqib Raza, Malakand Division Commissioner.

KP Chief Minister Justice (retd) Arshad Hussain Shah strongly condemned the incident, terming it as cowardly.

“The police morale would not be defeated by such cowardly incidents”, he stated.

Polio vaccination campaigns, health workers and security officials have ofthen been targeted by militants of the banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other affiliate groups who have strongly oppose such drives.

Locals in the tribal districts of Pakistan have also been threatened of serious consequences if they comply with the polio vaccination workers.

In the past, pamphlets distributed by militant groups have threatened locals and directed them to keep themselves and their families away from the vaccination drive.

The Taliban resistance against the polio immunisation drive gained strength after the CIA claimed to organise a fake polio vaccination drive in Abbottabad to track down Osama Bin Laden, who was killed by a US Navy Seal operation in 2011.

Since then, the Taliban have strongly opposed the campaign, while many religious leaders in the bordering areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan also contribute to misinformation regarding the drive, claiming that vaccine contains pork and alcohol, which are forbidden in Islam.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world, yet to be declared free of the polio.