Police officer in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killed as polio vaccination drive starts

A Pakistan police officer traveling to guard polio vaccinators was shot dead Monday, police said, on the first day of a nationwide immunization effort after a year of rising cases.

The officer was traveling to guard polio vaccinators in the area of Jamrud town in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when he was killed, local police official Zarmat Khan told AFP.

"Two motorcycle riders opened fire on him," he said. "The constable died instantly at the scene."

The slain officer was identified as police constable Abdul Khaliq, who was deployed with an anti-polio team in the Bakrabad area of Jamrud Tehsil, according to Station House Officer (SHO) Shah Khalid of Jamrud Police Station.

SHO Khalid termed the killing a targeted attack and an act of terrorism. "Police have cordoned off the area and started further investigation. The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) police station will shortly lodge an FIR," he confirmed to Nukta.

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Abdul Hameed Afridi, another senior police official in the area, also confirmed details of the attack and said officers have launched an investigation.

According to a report by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), targeted attacks by militants over the past year claimed the lives of 96 security personnel, including 61 police officials. Additionally, 172 personnel sustained injuries, among them 82 from the police force.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed the responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic, and militants have for decades targeted vaccination teams and their security escorts.

Polio can easily be prevented by the oral administration of a few drops of vaccine, but scores of vaccination workers and their escorts have been killed over the years. In the past, clerics falsely claimed that the vaccine contained pork or alcohol, declaring it forbidden for Muslims.

In more recent years, attacks have increasingly targeted the police officers escorting vaccinators as they go door to door. Last year, dozens of Pakistani policemen who accompany medical teams on campaigns went on strike after a string of militant attacks against them.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence since the Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan. More than 1,600 people were killed in attacks in 2024—the deadliest year in almost a decade—according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based analysis group.

Islamabad accuses Kabul's new rulers of failing to rein in militants organizing on Afghan soil, a charge the Taliban government routinely denies.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday that last year's polio eradication efforts suffered "a major setback."

"We must eradicate polio from Pakistan at any cost," he said as he launched the new vaccination drive.

"Despite the incident, the polio vaccination drive in the area remains ongoing," Khan said.

—With additional input from AFP.