MOHMAND: Two police personnel were martyred and another injured when Fitna al Khawarij terrorists opened fire on officers deployed to protect an anti-polio vaccination campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mohmand district on Tuesday.
The attack took place in the Dag Tamanzai area, where the policemen were travelling to perform security duties for the vaccination drive, police said. The assailants fled after opening fire, prompting authorities to launch a search operation to track them down.
No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack. However, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as Fitna al Khawarij, and other militant groups have repeatedly targeted polio vaccination teams and the police assigned to protect them.
The attacks reflect a campaign of violence against a public health programme that seeks to protect millions of children from a preventable disease. The militants have historically spread false claims that polio vaccination is part of a Western conspiracy, putting health workers, security personnel and children at risk.
TTP Attacks Put Polio Workers and Children at Risk
The latest shooting is part of a long-running pattern of attacks on Pakistan’s anti-polio efforts, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
A report by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies documented 16 attacks specifically targeting polio vaccination teams and their police escorts among attacks attributed to the banned TTP during the period covered by its research. .
In September, two policemen guarding a polio vaccination team were also martyred after unidentified armed men opened fire in Balochistan’s Nushki district.
The violence has also extended beyond shootings. Four polio workers were abducted in the neighbouring district of Tank on Monday, according to police, as the latest vaccination campaign got underway.
Such attacks threaten more than the lives of frontline workers and their security escorts. They disrupt vaccination activities, create fear among communities and risk leaving children without protection against a disease that can cause lifelong paralysis.
Pakistan Launches Campaign to Vaccinate 24 Million Children
The attack came a day after Pakistan launched a subnational polio vaccination campaign targeting around 24 million children in 97 districts.
The campaign began on November 2 and is scheduled to continue until November 8, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre.
Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that has no cure. It can cause permanent paralysis and, in severe cases, death. However, it can be prevented through safe and effective vaccination.
Pakistan has reported eight cases of wild poliovirus type 1 so far in 2026, including six in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh.
Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan remain the only countries where wild poliovirus is endemic, making the protection of vaccination teams and uninterrupted immunisation campaigns critical to global eradication efforts.
The repeated targeting of polio teams and their security escorts has turned a public health campaign into a dangerous assignment for thousands of workers and police personnel. Each attack threatens to undermine efforts to protect children from a disease that is entirely preventable through vaccination.
