Two policemen guarding polio workers shot dead in Mohmand as nationwide vaccination drive continues
Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on police travelling to protect vaccination teams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Mohmand district, killing two officers and injuring a third, days into a campaign to vaccinate nearly 24 million children.
Two police officers assigned to protect polio vaccination teams have been shot dead in northwestern Pakistan, in the latest attack on the people who keep the country's immunisation campaigns running in areas where health workers face armed threats.
The attack took place on Tuesday in Mohmand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province that borders Afghanistan. Gunmen travelling on a motorcycle opened fire on a police vehicle as the officers were travelling to a nearby village to guard vaccination teams during a door-to-door campaign. A third officer was injured in the shooting. No polio vaccination staff were in the police vehicle at the time, police said, and no group immediately claimed responsibility.
Rescue 1122 identified the two officers killed as constables Zahoor and Fazal Rabi, and the injured officer as Constable Sabir. The shooting happened in the Taman Zai area of Pindiali tehsil, near the Hashim Kor police checkpost, according to local reports, and a search operation was launched after the attackers fled. The district police officer said one attacker was also reported injured in the exchange.
The killings came a day after four polio workers were abducted in Tank, another district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and they have been followed by the deployment of additional security personnel across parts of the province. The two incidents, close together and in the same province, underline how exposed vaccination teams and their escorts remain, even during a high-profile national campaign.
The campaign itself is one of the largest of its kind in the world. It began on Monday, 2 November, and aims to vaccinate nearly 24 million children under the age of five across 97 high-risk districts by 8 November. Health officials reported that more than 6.68 million children were vaccinated on the first day alone, a figure that shows both the scale of the operation and the logistical effort behind reaching children in remote and insecure areas.
Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus still circulates, and its eradication programme has long been a target for militant groups. The Pakistani Taliban and other armed groups have regularly attacked anti-polio drives and the police who protect health workers, falsely claiming that vaccination campaigns are part of a Western conspiracy to sterilise children. That misinformation, combined with insecurity in border districts, has repeatedly disrupted campaigns and put vaccinators at risk.
The latest violence coincided with grim news from the surveillance system. Health authorities confirmed the country's eighth polio case of 2026 in a 13-month-old girl from Khyber district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, making it the sixth case from the province this year. Each new case is a reminder that, despite years of campaigns, the virus continues to find unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children.
The reaction from the country's leadership was swift and unequivocal. President Asif Ali Zardari described the shooting as extremely regrettable and condemnable, saying police personnel deployed to protect polio teams were performing a national duty and that their sacrifices would not be forgotten. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned the attack, calling it intolerable and offering condolences to the families of the officers, whom he said were working for a healthier future for the country.
The immediate question now is whether the campaign can continue safely in the affected districts. Officials have not announced a suspension, and the pattern in previous years has been for campaigns to press on with heavier security after attacks. But each killing also risks deterring the very workers the programme depends on, and it sharpens the dilemma facing health authorities: how to reach every child in insecure areas without putting vaccinators and their escorts in unacceptable danger.
For the families of the two officers, and for the vaccination teams still going door to door, the Mohmand shooting is a stark illustration of a campaign that is about far more than drops of vaccine. It is, in the words of officials who condemned the attack, a national duty carried out under threat — and its success will depend on whether security and public trust can hold for the remaining days of the drive.
More in Pakistan News
Photo: A street in Islamabad (file image)
Pakistan NewsPakistan and UK share concern over Afghan-based terror threat at annual counter-terrorism dialogue in Islamabad
Pakistan and the United Kingdom have held their annual bilateral counter-terrorism dialogue in Islamabad, voicing shared concern over terrorist groups operating in and from Afghanistan, including the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, and agreeing to hold the next round in London in 2027.
Photo: Parliament House in Islamabad (file image)
Pakistan NewsPakistan cabinet ratifies Kuwait defence pact, shifts KP chief minister's powers to governor and unveils LPG auction plan
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's federal cabinet has ratified the Pakistan-Kuwait defence cooperation agreement, transferred the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister's delegated powers to Governor Faisal Karim Kundi during governor's rule, and announced a competitive auction system for liquefied petroleum gas quotas.
Photo: The General Post Office in Lahore (file image)
Pakistan NewsNAB summons Fazl's son Asad Mahmood over alleged Pakistan Post hiring irregularities
The National Accountability Bureau has summoned former communications minister Asad Mahmood to appear on 10 November over alleged irregularities in 4,252 Pakistan Post appointments made during his 2022-23 tenure.